GTA 6 owner Take-Two is 'embracing generative AI' as part of its goal to be the 'most efficient company in the entertainment business' says CEO

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• Take-Two Interactive is "embracing generative AI" according to its CEO
• The Rockstar Games owner "hundreds of pilots" testing the technology
• Thankfully generative AI will play "zero part" in the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6

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Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has discussed the potential of generative AI technology in the company's latest earnings call.

In response to a question about the recent bruising that Take-Two stock received following the announcement of Google's Project Genie AI tool, which purportedly allows users to generate playable interactive worlds based on prompts, Zelnick admitted that he was "a little confused" by the market's reaction.

"The video game business, since its inception, was built on the back of machine learning and artificial intelligence," he explained. "We create our games in computers with technology and, ever since questions began about generative AI about months ago, I've been incredibly enthusiastic about what the future can bring."

He went on to reveal that Take-Two is currently "actively embracing generative AI" with "hundreds of pilots" testing its implementation across the company including in its game studios.

He added that the company has the chance "to drive efficiencies, reduce costs, and create the opportunity to do what digital technology has always allowed" by reducing the time spent on "mundane tasks" and freeing up time for "the more interesting tasks of making superb entertainment."

It comes as part of Take-Two's overall strategy to "be the most creative, be the most innovative, and be the most efficient company in the entertainment business."

What does this mean for Rockstar?

(Image credit: Shutterstock/Sashkin)

Although you can hardly move for massive tech companies making announcements regarding generative AI, use of the technology remains controversial in the gaming space.

Fans were disappointed to see apparent "AI slop" adorning the side of a building in a recent Forza Horizon 6 trailer, and Battlefield 6 players expressed fury at the sale of seemingly AI generated content in the game's virtual store late last year.

Thankfully, Zelnick has confirmed that generative AI will not be used in the development of the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6. Speaking to Gamesindustry.biz ahead of the earnings call, he confirmed that: "Generative AI has zero part in what Rockstar Games is building."

"Their worlds are handcrafted. That's what differentiates them," he explained. "They're built from the ground up, building by building, street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood. They're not procedurally generated, they shouldn't be. That's what makes great entertainment."

The earnings call also reaffirmed that GTA 6 is still on track to launch on November 19, 2026 with marketing efforts expected to ramp up soon.

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I’m a writer who won’t use generative AI — here are 7 AI-free tools that actually support real writing

While it seems that software firms want to put AI into everything, many creative people want tools that are AI-free. I'm one of them. I'm not against AI by any means – I use AI tools in music, and I've found AI-based transcription to be a godsend (once I take out the bits it makes up) – but as a professional writer and author, generative AI is a no-no for me for multiple reasons.

A big one for me and for many other writers is that genAI writing is based in part on pirating our books: some of my own books and books by my writer friends are in the Anthropic dataset (and because I’m not in the US, I'm not eligible for any of the $1.5 billion settlement that came from the class action lawsuit against the company).

One of the results of that is that many literary magazines and other important outlets now have a strict "no AI for anything" policy.

There are more practical everyday issues too. I've found that AI-powered helpers tend to make my writing worse and the writing process more difficult. I've turned off AI-based autocorrect that had me constantly fixing ridiculous changes it made to my error-free typing, and I've shuddered as AI editing tools turned characterful writing into LinkedIn thought leader-style corporate slop.

So, what can writers use instead? Here are seven excellent options from distraction-free desktops to print and ebook producers.

1. LibreOffice (Windows, Mac, Linux)

(Image credit: Future)

• Free

The free, open source, old-school Microsoft Office alternative isn't the prettiest app suite out there, I know. But it's a very good place to write words, because it gets out of your way and lets you focus on the words you're writing. It has Master Documents so you can break even the biggest writing projects into more manageable chunks, it has the Navigator noting every use of the H1 heading style so you can easily find your way around chapters, and because it runs locally rather than in the cloud it's always available even when Wi-Fi isn't.

2. Beat (Mac, iPad)

(Image credit: Lauri-Matti Parppei)

• Free (Mac)
• €12.99 (about £11 / $15 / AU$22) for iPad

Created by screenwriter Lauri-Matti Parppei for other screenwriters (and since extended to cover novel writing too), Beat is a clean, straightforward and very fast writing app that features an outliner, distraction-free writing, good file format support, automatic formatting and on the Mac, a library of plugins to expand its features. The Mac version is free and open source; sales from the iOS/iPadOS version help Parppei keep the lights on.

3. Ulysses (Mac, iPhone, iPad)

(Image credit: TechRadar)

• $39.99 / £39.99 (around AU$60) per year for Mac
• $5.99 / $5.99 / AU$9.99 per month for iPhone/iPad

Ulysses has been my go-to writing app for many years now. It's a Markdown-based writing environment that runs very quickly and keeps features to a minimum, and I love it so much I wrote an entire article about how good it is. One of its best features is its ability to export your work to almost anything: content management systems, blogging platforms, ebooks and all the key text and document formats. It's very customizable and has tiny system requirements because working in plain text, which is what Markdown effectively is, isn't going to make even the most modest Mac break sweat. It's good on iOS/iPadOS too, and syncs over iCloud.

4. iA Writer (Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad)

(Image credit: iA)

• $19.99 (£15 / AU$29) iPad/iPhone
• $29.99 (£22 / AU$43) Windows
• $49.99 (£36 / AU$72) Mac

Like Ulysses iA Writer is a stripped-down, lightning fast writing environment with superb export options, but while the app doesn't use AI itself – hence its inclusion here – its creators have taken an interesting approach to the technology, which they've written about in detail. Instead of integrating AI writing tools into their apps, they've described it as a problem to solve as AI gets everywhere – and their solution is called Authorship. Authorship is in the Mac, iPhone and iPad versions of the app and it can track changes made by the likes of Apple's AI writing tools as well as text copied from third party generative AI.

5. Scrivener (Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad)

(Image credit: Literature and Latte)

• £55 (about $75 / AU$108) Mac/Windows
• $23.99 (about £17.50 / AU$35) iPhone/iPad

I've written entire books in Scrivener, and that's what it was made for: in addition to its writing tools it's also an excellent research and ideas organiser, so you can have notes about your characters, photos of locations you want to use, snippets of information you want to include and anything else relevant to your book right there in the app. It's overkill if you only want to write short pieces, but if you want an app that can take you from the first blank page to a fully finished manuscript and ebook, Scrivener is superb.

6. Storyist (Mac, iPhone, iPad)

(Image credit: Storyist Software LLC)

• $59 (about £43 / AU$85) for Mac
• $19.99 / £19.99 / AU$29.99 for iPad/iPhone

Storyist is a good-looking and very friendly writing app aimed at novelists and screenwriters, and it contains some great tools to help you create your masterpiece including snippets for commonly used text, print-ready PDF output, an excellent outliner and an extensive selection of customisable style sheets for specific kinds of publication. It's quite similar to Scrivener, albeit a bit less intimidating-looking.

7. yWriter (Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone, iPad)

(Image credit: Spacejock software)

• Free (Windows/Mac)
• £14.99 / $14.99 / AU$22.99 (iPhone/iPad)

yWriter promises that it won't write your novel, suggest plot ideas or perform any creative tasks whatsoever. It's a stripped-back writing app that encourages you to think of your story in terms of scenes rather than chapters, and to use metadata: project notes, objects used in the scene, which character's viewpoint is being used, whether the scene is a draft or complete and so on. The Mac app is still in beta and that's currently closed, but if you have an Apple Silicon Mac you can run the iOS version.

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Raspberry Pi price hike means it's now 70% costlier than pre-RAM crisis — but there's promising DDR5 news at least

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• DDR5 RAM pricing appears to have plateaued in Germany
• That's very different from the past few months of huge price leaps
• At the same time, analyst firms are forecasting major price hikes are still to come, and PCs are feeling the knock-on effects – the Raspberry Pi being the latest victim

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There's a hopeful sign that the RAM crisis might be stalling, but don't put too much stock in this idea just yet – especially as we're still hearing about major price hikes for memory, and also PCs, the latest of which is a big leap in cost for the compact Raspberry Pi computer board.

I'll come back to the Raspberry Pi pricing (flagged by Tom's Hardware) later, but first off, let's focus on the better news from the memory market. VideoCardz spotted that German tech site 3D Center, which keeps tabs on the RAM prices at retail in that country, has found that price hikes on DDR5 memory have apparently stalled – at least for now.

Over the past month, based on the cost of a mix of 20 separate DDR5 RAM products at German retailers, pricing has only risen by a marginal 0.1% from mid-January to now.

That's a very different picture compared to the huge leaps seen in the previous few months.

From October to November 2025, we witnessed a 49% rise, followed by a 93% price hike across these products through December 2025, and then a chunky 27% increase in January 2026. Albeit even this latter rise showed that inflation was slowing down, and has now plateaued in February according to 3D Center's figures.

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Analysis: a welcome respite, but let's not get carried away

(Image credit: Zoomik / Shutterstock)

We need to take any such theories about reaching a pricing plateau with some caution, given that this is just one report, based on a slice of the market in a single country.

Of course, you could argue that huge inflationary spikes can only persist for so long, by their very nature – consumers are going to stop buying (in the main) if they feel pricing has become too ridiculous, which will in itself have a levelling effect in terms of supply and demand.

We've seen some evidence of exactly this in the stabilization of very pricey high-capacity RAM kits in recent months, which is at least a glimmer of hope amid all the gloomy news of big price increases.

However, don't forget that, more broadly, analyst firms still believe there's plenty of price misery to come, with TrendForce predicting that DRAM pricing is likely to rise by 50% (or a little more) in the first quarter of 2026.

We've also seen the cost of RAM having a knock-on effect with various products, the latest of which is the Raspberry Pi, the compact and affordable computer board, which has become less affordable due to the cost of its system memory, with the top-tier models, anyway.

Recently announced price increases have hit models of the Raspberry Pi 4 and 5, which pack more than 2GB of RAM. The big increases are applied to the top-end boards with 16GB (as you might guess), and they've gone up in price by $60, which means the flagship Raspberry Pi 5 is now $205.

That's 70% more expensive than this model was at launch, so it's not that far off double the price now – and getting way out of cheap-and-cheerful territory, of course.

There isn't much the manufacturer can do about this, though, if they're having to pay a great deal more for the system RAM from the supplier.

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Capcom's new Resident Evil Requiem trailer might have two massive hints you missed

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• Capcom's Resident Evil Requiem just got a new short film featuring Maika Monroe
• It shows the story of a mother and child from the Raccoon City outbreak
• The trailer's ending may tease the return of a major character

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Resident Evil Requiem is less than a month away, with its launch set for February 27, and Capcom has stepped up its marketing efforts – this time with an unexpected trailer.

Capcom released a new live-action short film named 'Evil Has Always Had A Name' featuring It Follows and Longlegs actor Maika Monroe. Its story that follows a mother and her child before, during, and after the Raccoon City outbreak.

There are multiple easter eggs in the trailer, namely the silhouette of Resident Evil 3's Nemesis hidden in smoke, and the classic 'S.T.A.R.S' voice line in the background. We also have the Gun Shop Kendo store briefly shown during the night of the outbreak, and a licker, which seemingly leads to the heartbreaking demise of the protagonist's daughter.

Most importantly, we see the same shot of Raccoon City's crater that has been present in almost all of Requiem's trailers. Assuming it's set in the present day (or close enough), Monroe's now zombified character gives a monologue stating, 'tell them I was still me, right up until the end' before being slain at her daughter's burial site.

Zombies may be sentient in Requiem

It may be best to use the term 'zombie' loosely. While the infected we've seen in Resident Evil Requeim are clearly not human, director Koshi Nakanishi highlighted that each maintains elements of their human personalities, even committing to the same daily tasks they would when alive, complete with some speech.

However, this short film may have just hinted at the undead in Requiem being more sentient than we thought, possibly being fully aware of what's happening, maintaining memories and feelings, but without the ability to control themselves over their infection.

It won't be the first time the franchise has attempted something as such: Resident Evil 4 featured enemies controlled by the Las Plagas parasite, but still kept human traits (even if they were wild and violent).

Requiem appears to be taking a similar route, but one that will tug on players' heartstrings, if this short film is anything to go by.

Was that Ada Wong at the end?

(Image credit: Capcom)

There's still so much we don't know about Resident Evil Requiem, and that's fortunate for many who want to go into the experience blind. One thing we do know is that legacy characters will be making a return, whether from Resident Evil Outbreak or the franchise's mainline entries.

Ada Wong has been present in every Resident Evil game that features Leon S. Kennedy thus far and, if this is indeed Leon's last game for a long while, her appearance is increasingly likely.

That's further backed up by the end of this short film, where armed forces are moving into Raccoon City, with a voice that sounds very familiar stating 'Copy that. Raccoon City is ours.'

We know that Ada's motivations and allegiances in the Resident Evil games are blurred, often working for shady corporations or figures like Albert Wesker. It's not far-fetched to suggest that this may indeed be Ada Wong talking, which will have us wondering which side she's truly on at launch on February 27.

Either way, Resident Evil Requiem is shaping up to be the franchise's most ambitious title, with emotional story beats and a potential end to a saga that has run since 1998.

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The inevitable has happened — the Switch has finally outsold the DS, making it Nintendo's all-time best-selling console

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• The Switch has reportedly become Nintendo's best-selling console ever
• As of the end of 2025, it has finally surpassed the DS's previous record
• The Switch remains behind the PlayStation 2 by about 5 million units, according to SIE

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Nintendo has confirmed that the Switch is officially its all-time best-selling piece of hardware, finally surpassing the previous record set by the original DS console as of December 31, 2025.

The company's latest financial data update (sourced by The Verge) shows that the original Switch (also accounting for the Lite and OLED models) has reached 155.37 million hardware units sold. That's been enough to dethrone the Nintendo DS and its lifetime sales of 154.02 million units across all models.

The Switch has also crossed 1.5 billion software units sold as of December 31, 2025, vastly outpacing any system in its history. The next closest is the DS at 948.76 software units, closely followed by the Wii's 921.85 million.

Still, Nintendo has some legwork left to do if it wants the Switch to surpass the lifetime sales of the PlayStation 2. According to Sony Interactive Entertainment's cumulative worldwide hardware unit sales, the PS2 is sitting at 160 million units (as of March 31, 2012).

Despite an underwhelming Christmas performance, the Nintendo Switch 2 has done alright in its first six months on store shelves. At 17.37 million hardware units sold as of the end of last year, it was Nintendo's fastest-selling console at launch. Its momentum may continue to be rocky, though, as analysts have warned consumers to brace for a price hike sometime in 2026.

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Record-breaking graphics card was broken, until this YouTuber repaired the Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti — then used it to dominate this 8K GPU benchmark

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• A YouTuber repaired an Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti with a hole in the board
• The project then went further into a quest to juice up this graphics card and set a new record with it
• That attempt was successful, with the resurrected RTX 5070 Ti grabbing top spot in its GPU category for the Unigine Superposition 8K test

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Pushing GPUs to record-breaking levels is nothing new for enthusiast overclockers, of course – but here's something that definitely is new: a record being set by a graphics card with a hole in it.

VideoCardz highlighted the achievement of Brazilian YouTuber Paulo Gomes and his team (via PC Gamer), who had previously brought back to life a nonfunctional Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti that had a hole in its circuit board.

(Image credit: Paulo Gomes / ET's LGA1155 / YouTube)

That feat of tech resurrection wasn't enough, though, and the YouTube channel figured that setting a record with this RTX 5070 Ti would be a fun task to attempt.

The team used an RTX 2080 Ti board as a new base for the broken GPU, then undertook a whole lot of soldering, fiddling around with voltages, and tweaking power levels to get something capable of setting a world record.

This happened during a livestream that lasted over seven hours (which you can see below – or rather, skip through, rather than watch in its entirety, unless you're very brave), and it ended in a new record for the Unigine Superposition 8K optimized test.

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Analysis: a seriously impressive achievement

This fudged-to-work RTX 5070 Ti with a hole in it managed to score 11,150 in the end, which is a long way behind the number one RTX 5090 results, of course, but it's the best score ever seen for the RTX 5070 Ti itself (some way down the overall rankings, naturally). The GPU did this by hitting a clock speed of 3.23GHz, we're told.

As VideoCardz points out, this isn't the most respected GPU benchmark in town these days, but nonetheless, to get a broken RTX 5070 Ti working again – and working well enough to break any record – is mind-boggling, frankly.

Granted, the resulting graphics card does not look pretty, with wires snaking everywhere and yellow masking tape applied all over the place, but in some ways, this makes the achievement all the more remarkable.

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Bethesda has finally given us a new trailer for Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas… but it isn’t quite what I had in mind

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• Bethesda just gave us a new Fallout trailer
• It doesn't confirm the rumored Fallout 3 remaster
• Fallout Season 2's finale airs this week

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If the internet is to be believed, the finale of Fallout Season 2 – the Prime Video hit based on the iconic video game series – won’t leave us wanting for more Wasteland adventures for long, as Bethesda is apparently gearing up to shadow-drop a remaster of Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, or both.

And it did just drop a brand new trailer for both games… but it was also an advert for the series as a whole. Starring Aaron Moten (who plays Maximus in the show) and Vault Boy in a creepy-meets-funny sketch where the duo revisit various entries in the series – including Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, as well as more recent entries like Fallout Shelter and Fallout 76.

While the 2:25-minute skit does a great job of selling the different entries in the series, it’s obviously not what many players had been hoping for. And while it doesn’t outright confirm a rerelease of two Fallout classics, it doesn’t dispel my hopes yet either.

Need some addictol for my copium problem

So why do many believe in the shadow-drop speculation?

Well, it wouldn't be the first time. Fallout 4 was made official and then released only a few months later, which was much quicker than typical industry norms at the time, but 2023’s Hi-Fi Rush and last year’s Oblivion Remastered were both proper instant surprises when they made their debuts.

And according to developer comments, Bethesda wants to do more shadow-drops going forward (via FRVR).

How do fingers point towards Fallout 3 and New Vegas, then? Well, both of these games – especially New Vegas with the most recent season – have been a significant inspiration for the TV show. However, the games unfortunately show their age, which doesn’t make them easy for Fallout’s newer, more casual fans to pick up.

We also have court documents from Microsoft confirming a Fallout 3 remake is in the works. These same documents also spoiled the Oblivion remaster.

Will Fallout 3 follow Oblivion? (Image credit: Bethesda Softworks)

Remaster speculation hasn’t been helped by posts like this on Reddit, which suggested Steam had teased the remakes by saying the Fallout series had 12 entries, but only showed 10 games in the collection; however, fans pointed out it’s because of regional variants, not secret remasters.

Or this other post highlighting that several trailers were recently removed from the Fallout 3 Steam page – something which also happened just before Oblivion’s remaster landed.

However, as is true for all leaks and speculation – doubly so for releases fans are unbelievably excited for – it’s hard to tell where legitimate spoilers end and desperate hoping begins.

I’m very much a believer that at least one Fallout 3 or New Vegas will be updated soon, though I’m not expecting any Remaster to land later this week. Hopefully I’m proven wrong on that, but either way we have the Season 2 finale to look forward to – and after last episode’s ending it can’t come soon enough.

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Google’s new AI 'world model' is already hitting the games industry, but it's everything I hate about artificial intelligence

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• Google launched its new AI tool, Project Genie, for AI Ultra plan subscribers
• It has since caused a plummet in stock prices for multiple video game companies
• Investors placing stock in Project Genie is a concerning sign for potential AI game development

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AI continues to be a constant threat to gaming, with its heavy impact on gaming PC hardware via high RAM prices, and concerns of replacing game developers, and a recent update shows that the latter may eventually become a possibility.

According to Google, multiple video game developers and publishers have seen major stock price plummets as a result of Project Genie's release. It's a new AI tool from Google that allows users to generate playable interactive worlds based on prompts or images.

As you might have guessed, this has led to multiple users creating worlds using images of popular games like Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Rockstar Games' GTA 5, and Kingdom Hearts, some of which look close to the genuine products in some areas.

There is no map pre-loaded in memory. As your agent explores, Genie predicts and renders the path ahead instantly. Infinite exploration. pic.twitter.com/5lZzhFS6voJanuary 30, 2026

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Analysts have noted that the reason for stock price drops for companies like CD Projekt Red, Take Two Interactive (Rockstar Games' parent company), and Nintendo is that investors have quite clearly put a lot of stock into Project Genie, likely with the idea that this would overthrow genuine creations from big game studios.

However, Project Genie is still in its experimental phase, which means these interactive worlds are barely playable, and it comes at a hefty cost for users at $249.99 per month via Google's AI Ultra plan.

It's not even close to being advanced enough to outdo authentic games, and the consensus surrounding AI integration in gaming (such as the backlash to AI in Call of Duty Black Ops 7) indicates that gamers won't stand for AI-generated gaming. However, there's still a chance this will become a reality in the future.

Opinion: AI is a deadly threat to gaming, and this is a warning sign

(Image credit: Getty Images/Surasak Suwanmake)

While AI certainly has its benefits, namely Nvidia's DLSS upscaling technology, AI is very quickly proving to be detrimental to gaming.

PC hardware manufacturers are turning their attention to AI enterprises, which is part of why RAM prices are so high, and now, investors have just given us our first glimpse at what will happen if a competent AI tool for gaming is launched – and it's scary.

Game development from real developers has yielded some of the best content in games that the entertainment industry has ever seen, and if an AI tool like Project Genie ever becomes advanced enough to potentially challenge authentic games, we could be staring down the barrel of a loss in creativity, gaming lacking identity, and most importantly, more layoffs.

It's a promising sign to see that gamers are protesting against such measures vehemently, as I strongly believe that AI should not be used for games in this manner. Let's just hope it never gets to that point.

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NYT Strands hints and answers for Tuesday, February 3 (game #702)

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Monday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Monday, February 2 (game #701).

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #702) - hint #1 - today's theme

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… On key

NYT Strands today (game #702) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• TASK
• BRASH
• SLIDE
• RACK
• ROCK
• BOOK

NYT Strands today (game #702) - hint #3 - spangram letters

How many letters are in today's spangram?

• Spangram has 6 letters

NYT Strands today (game #702) - hint #4 - spangram position

What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First side: left, 5th row

Last side: right, 4th row

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #702) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #702, are…

• CARET
• TILDE
• UNDERSCORE
• ASTERISK
• HASHTAG
• BRACKET
• SPANGRAM: SYMBOL

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 2 hints

It wasn’t until I got UNDERSCORE that I finally realized that the “key” in the theme referred to a keyboard key.

Prior to that, two hints had given me CARET and TILDE, which had left me in the dark. CARET (^) incidentally is a symbol I usually use to indicate up, but is more commonly used to indicate some missing punctuation, while TILDE (~) is the wavy dash that is often used to indicate approximately.

After getting the spangram I was left with the more obvious keyboard symbols, including the 2012 word of the year – HASHTAG.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Monday, February 2, game #701)

• PENGUIN
• OSTRICH
• RHEA
• CONDOR
• PELICAN
• CASSOWARY
• SPANGRAM: BIGBIRDS

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

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NYT Connections hints and answers for Tuesday, February 3 (game #968)

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Monday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, February 2 (game #967).

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #968) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• CARD
• WOOD
• FOAM
• DICE
• BOARD
• CUBE
• QUARTER
• HOLE
• HASH
• HOUSE
• IRON
• MINCE
• WEDGE
• LANE
• LODGE
• PUTTER

NYT Connections today (game #968) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Chop up food
• GREEN: Places to rest 
• BLUE: Used to play 18 holes
• PURPLE: Begin with a word to remember

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #968) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: CUT INTO PIECES
• GREEN: PROVIDE WITH A PLACE TO STAY
• BLUE: KINDS OF GOLF CLUBS
• PURPLE: MEMORY ____

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #968) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #968, are…

• YELLOW: CUT INTO PIECES CUBE, DICE, HASH, MINCE
• GREEN: PROVIDE WITH A PLACE TO STAY BOARD, HOUSE, LODGE, QUARTER
• BLUE: KINDS OF GOLF CLUBS IRON, PUTTER, WEDGE, WOOD
• PURPLE: MEMORY ____ CARD, FOAM, HOLE, LANE

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 1 mistake

I managed to convince myself that there was a group containing things you toss, so I tried linking DICE, QUARTER, CARD and, in desperation for a fourth tile, CUBE. 

This error out of the way I managed to think a bit more logically, seeing PROVIDE WITH A PLACE TO STAY and KINDS OF GOLF CLUBS pretty quickly.

With eight tiles left CUT INTO PIECES was so obvious I didn’t even try to see the link between CARD, FOAM, HOLE and LANE. Kudos if you spotted it early.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Monday, February 2, game #967)

• YELLOW: DURATION INTERVAL, PERIOD, SPAN, STRETCH
• GREEN: CREDENTIALS FOR ENTRY LANYARD, PASS, STAMP, WRISTBAND
• BLUE: MODERN CRIME SERIES PROTAGONISTS BOSCH, CROSS, REACHER, RYAN
• PURPLE: TREES PLUS A LETTER FAIR, MARPLE, POPULAR, PSALM

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

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'I'll believe it when I see it': Windows 11 users are cynical about Microsoft's promises to fix the OS and stop pushing AI

• Microsoft is rumored to be cutting back on AI in Windows 11
• That includes reducing Copilot integration in the interface and core apps
• Recall may also be in line for some big changes, and could get renamed, with some heavy hints dropped that Microsoft isn't happy with it at all

Apparently, Microsoft is turning over another new leaf with AI in Windows 11, following another page turned last week with a broad promise to fix the desktop operating system.

Windows Central claims that Microsoft is taking action following the strong pushback against AI since the company doubled down on driving forward with these features (most notably with AI agents in Windows 11).

We're told that according to sources our sister site spoke to, Microsoft is 'reevaluating its AI strategy on Windows 11' and planning on cutting back some AI features where they don't make sense.

That includes reducing the number of Copilot buttons in the Windows 11 interface or its default apps, as these have been scattered liberally around in a not-so-subtle effort to promote the AI assistant. We're told specifically that the Copilot integration found in the Notepad and Paint apps is currently under review for some streamlining work.

There's also a freeze on adding more Copilot buttons or functionality to other default Windows 11 apps, although that's likely only a temporary measure.

The message is clear enough, though, and for now Microsoft is reining in its desire to jam more AI, and more Copilot integration, into Windows 11 and its library of core apps.

Another nugget of info here is Windows Central's assertion that Microsoft is also reviewing the viability of the Recall feature – the deep Windows 11 search that leverages regularly-taken screenshots. Apparently, even Microsoft feels that Recall has 'failed' in its current form, although the software giant is looking at ways to evolve the concept rather than scrap it entirely.

That suggests ditching it completely is still a possibility, though, but obviously not a favored one. It seems distinctly possible that at least the name could be changed, and the feature might be morphed into something else.

Analysis: on the right track – but we need actions, not words (or rumors)

(Image credit: Microsoft)

We obviously need to take all this with some caution, as with anything that's ultimately a rumor – albeit likely a well-informed one, and speculation that very much makes sense.

As I mentioned at the outset, last week Microsoft promised to fix the bugs and performance glitches with Windows 11, and that's tied into AI, in a way. Because a lot of the bad feeling about AI being such a focus for Microsoft, as it jams an increasing number of these features into Windows 11, is that the company is doing this at the expense of the overall quality of the OS. As the rallying call around a lot of the AI hate went late last year, Microsoft needs to fix the fundamentals of Windows 11, and drop the obsession with developing as much AI-related functionality as possible.

And that's exactly what Microsoft appears to be doing: fixing those fundamentals, as previously indicated – something we've already seen evidence of, in fact – and easing back on the overzealous pushing of AI.

It seems Microsoft is finally listening to users, in short, and taking action. Or, more correctly, I should say planning to take action – and actually going through with making good on all this is a different thing that remains to be seen.

I'm still worried that Microsoft has gone into a defensive PR mode, as it were, and is making all the right noises about fixing up Windows 11 – and relenting with the AI drive, at least temporarily – but that this won't amount to nearly what it should. I'm not alone in that either, as there are a good deal of Windows 11 users expressing sentiments along skeptical lines in the usual online forums.

In this Reddit thread, the most upvoted comment, which chimes with my thoughts, is a simple statement: "I'll believe it when I see it."

Time will tell how this pans out, but what runs in favor of something positive happening is the undeniable failings of Microsoft and Windows 11 in terms of the public perception of the OS. It's clear enough that something must be done, and I won't retread the same ground that I've been over in the past few months regarding the reputation of the OS – and how if it bombs any further, and trust is eroded in Microsoft, how can autonomous AI agents really work in Windows 11? They won't, because people won't trust them, just like they don't trust Recall.

Speaking of AI agents, don't think Microsoft is backtracking on those entities. The whole 'agentic platform' vision for Windows 11 is still seen as the future, and semantic (natural language) AI-powered search is, too (the latter is one of the strengths of AI, after all).

However, at the very least, Microsoft now appears to be treading more carefully, and has made some clear enough promises regarding fixing Windows 11. Hopefully we'll see the results of that – and the company taking its foot off the accelerator in terms of shoving AI everywhere in Windows 11, if this new rumor is right – soon enough.

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This touchscreen controller patent from Sony could hint at a future leap forward for accessibility — 'There exists a desire for game controllers to allow for different configurations'

• A Sony-filed patent jhas revealed designs for a "buttonless" controller
• It would use touchscreens instead of the traditional buttons, d-pad, and more
• Elements could be resized and moved around at will

Sony has patented a controller design that looks like it would do away with buttons entirely, as well as the d-pad and thumbsticks.

The patent (spotted by Insider Gaming) was filed on January 27, 2026, and is now available to view publicly. It details a "buttonless" controller that, as hinted in the URL, could be an early concept for a potential PlayStation 6 controller rather than something for the PS5. Take that with a pinch of salt, naturally, as patents often don't lead to a fully-realized product.

Imagery in the patent depicts a controller with two large touchscreens, situated where the d-pad, face buttons, and thumbsticks would be. The touchscreens are located on the left and right of the pad, with a central "push button" dividing the two.

The patent also shows that the usual physical features of a controller are now elements that can be interacted with on the touchscreen. Players would be able to assign button, d-pad, and stick elements, as well as move them around and resize them according to preference. One image shows that elements could even overlap.

The Background section of the patent offers some insight as to how such a product could be beneficial to the end user, from an accessibility standpoint.

"One of the drawbacks of existing designs [of controllers] may be the fixed configuration," it reads. "By way of example, a fixed layout may be too small, or too large, for a user. Similarly, a fixed layout may not be comfortable to a user."

It goes on to state that: "There exists a desire for game controllers to allow for different configurations, and accommodate hand sizes without having to customize or manufacture controller size."

We've certainly seen evidence of this from PlayStation itself. The PlayStation Access controller, for example, is an accessibility-driven device that is highly modular, and allows for a swathe of layouts and setups.

Contemporary controllers are also adopting more advanced features, like swappable thumbstick layouts and additional remappable buttons. The likes of the Victrix Pro BFG Reloaded and Razer Raiju V3 Pro come to mind here.

It remains to be seen if Sony will do anything with this buttonless controller patent. But it's certainly an interesting idea that - if one can get over the loss of physicality that comes with touch screens - could be helpful in creating accessibility-driven button layouts without needing custom hardware setups.

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NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, February 2 (game #967)

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Sunday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, February 1 (game #966).

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #967) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• POPULAR
• PERIOD
• CROSS
• STAMP
• SPAN
• PSALM
• PASS
• RYAN
• LANYARD
• STRETCH
• REACHER
• MARPLE
• FAIR
• INTERVAL
• WRISTBAND
• BOSCH

NYT Connections today (game #967) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: A length of time
• GREEN: ID formats
• BLUE: Fictional detectives
• PURPLE: Altered plants

Need more clues?

NYT Connections today (game #967) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: DURATION
• GREEN: CREDENTIALS FOR ENTRY
• BLUE: MODERN CRIME SERIES PROTAGONISTS
• PURPLE: TREES PLUS A LETTER

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #967) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #967, are…

• YELLOW: DURATION INTERVAL, PERIOD, SPAN, STRETCH
• GREEN: CREDENTIALS FOR ENTRY LANYARD, PASS, STAMP, WRISTBAND
• BLUE: MODERN CRIME SERIES PROTAGONISTS BOSCH, CROSS, REACHER, RYAN
• PURPLE: TREES PLUS A LETTER FAIR, MARPLE, POPULAR, PSALM

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 2 mistakes

After getting the easy/yellow group over a short SPAN of time, I spent a longer PERIOD laboring over what became MODERN CRIME SERIES PROTAGONISTS.

My mistakes came in assuming that MARPLE belonged alongside the other two detectives I knew from the TV incarnations – BOSCH and REACHER – leaving me to take a guess with RYAN and CROSS. After two “one away”s I deduced that the elderly spinster was a red herring.

With just eight tiles left, CREDENTIALS FOR ENTRY was easy to spot, with the final purple group finally revealing the purpose of MARPLE.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Sunday, February 1, game #966)

• YELLOW: PUBLICIZE BOOST, HYPE, PITCH, PLUG
• BLUE: ANTHEM BANGER, BOP, HEATER, JAM
• GREEN: KINDS OF SHOES CLOG, FLAT, MULE, WEDGE
• PURPLE: MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS PLUS STARTING LETTER GLUTE, MORGAN, SHARP, THORN

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

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