apology
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CD Projekt Red co-founder apologizes for the sorry state of 'Cyberpunk 2077'
'This video is me publicly owning up,' Marcin Iwiński said.
NVIDIA apologizes for RTX 3090 pre-orders before they even begin
NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3090 is going on pre-order this morning, but it sounds like you’re going to need a lot of luck to get one. In a blog post, the company has essentially pre-apologized for the lack of supply, while stressing that it’s strictly designed (and priced) for enthusiasts.
Twitter won't remove Trump's Joe Scarborough conspiracy tweets
Twitter apologizes for the "pain" caused by Trump's tweets regarding a long-debunked murder conspiracy theory.
Blizzard pledges to fix (or refund) 'Warcraft III: Reforged'
It's only been a few days since Blizzard launched Warcraft III: Reforged, but fans have made it clear that they are not happy. In response, Blizzard says it is "sorry to those of you who didn't have the experience you wanted." The company promises that at least a handful of fixes are on the way.
Google will work with LGBTQ+ groups on harassment policies
In the wake of YouTube's controversial decision not to pull videos containing homophobic and racist attacks, Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote an internal email acknowledging that "the LGBTQ+ community has felt a lot of pain and frustration over recent events." While a few Google execs have already apologized for YouTube's decision, Pichai's email carries more weight given his position. The email, obtained by The Verge, also suggests that Google plans to conduct more internal discussions aimed at addressing its harassment policies.
Slack apologizes for 'mistakenly' banning people who had visited Iran
On Wednesday a number of people noticed their Slack access had suddenly been revoked, and the company said it was due to complying with "U.S. trade embargoes and economic sanctions regulations." However, it had cut off people who weren't logging on from countries impacted by sanctions or embargoes, although as TechCrunch noted, some said they had traveled to countries like Iran, North Korea or Cuba. Late Friday Slack apologized for its far-too-wide-reaching bans, claiming that "we made a series of mistakes and inadvertently deactivated a number of accounts that we shouldn't have." Slack: We did not block any user based on their nationality or ethnicity. As is standard in the enterprise software industry, Slack uses location information principally derived from IP addresses to implement these required blocks. We do not collect, use, or possess any information about the nationality or ethnicity of our users. We have restored access to most of the mistakenly blocked accounts, and we are working hard to restore any remaining users whose access was blocked in error. If you think we've made a mistake in blocking your access, please reach out to feedback@slack.com and we'll review as soon as possible. Going forward, the company said it will "soon" block access to IP addresses from certain countries. While users who travel their may not have access while connected to those networks, they won't be banned and can log in when they're in another region that isn't under legal sanctions.
Mark Zuckerberg will apologize to EU for not taking 'broad enough view'
You won't have to wonder much about what Mark Zuckerberg will say when he meets with the European Parliament later on May 22nd. Business Insider has obtained the Facebook chief's introductory speech, and contrition is clearly the order of the day. Zuckerberg is expect to apologize for his company not taking a "broad enough view of our responsibilities," including the need to curb fake news, fight election interference by countries like Russia and, of course, prevent developers from abusing data. He's also expected to reiterate the changes Facebook is making to mend its ways, such as "doubling" the number of safety and security staffers.
Facebook apologizes for privacy breach with full-page newspaper ads
Facebook isn't just relying on TV appearances to apologize for its poor handling of Cambridge Analytica's data sharing. The social network took out full-page apology ads in several major US and UK Sunday newspapers, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Times. In each case, the ad included a missive from Mark Zuckerberg, who said he was "sorry" Facebook didn't "do more" when it learned that Cambridge Analytica had harvested data on more than 50 million people without their permission.
Uber sends apology email to its NYC riders
Uber's list of "issues" seems to grow with each passing day. Even when it tries to turn things around something goes wrong like one of its board members making a sexist remark and ending up leaving his seat. But it's still trying to convince its customers that it's willing to change and has even started emailing riders an apology.
Amazon admits that a typo took the internet down this week
The Great Amazon Web Services Outage of 2017 is behind us. Now, Jeff Bezos' golden child is ready to explain what happened. Turns out, what took Giphy, Medium, Slack, Quora and a ton of other websites and services down was a typo. As Amazon explains it, some of its S3 servers were operating rather sluggish, so a tech tried fixing it by taking a few billing servers offline. A fix straight from the company's playbook, it says. "Unfortunately, one of the inputs to the command was entered incorrectly and a larger set of servers was removed than intended." Whoops. As for why the problem took so long to correct, Amazon says that some of its server systems haven't been restarted in "many years." Given how much the S3 system has expanded, "the process of restarting these services and running the necessary safety checks to validate the integrity of the metadata took longer than expected." Amazon has apologized and promises to do better in the future, at least, saying it has altered the at-fault tool (the code, not the employee) so it removes capacity slower. Beyond that, it is adding measures to stop so many being taken offline at once.
Donald Trump's video apology goes out over Facebook, Twitter
Hours after the Washington Post published a video of Donald Trump in 2005 stating, among other things, that "And when you're a star, they let you do it...You can do anything. Grab them by the p---y," the candidate issued a video response that went out over social media. Despite Trump's reputation as a heavy Twitter user (in 2012 he tweeted "I love Twitter.... it's like owning your own newspaper--- without the losses.") it was published first on Facebook and then later on Twitter.
Alien sex tapes, robot rape and the evolution of consent
A little over a week ago Engadget's EIC and I had dinner with a couple of friends at a Chinatown Thai restaurant in L.A. As I sipped on a Singha Slurpee, our dinner companions, Claire Evans and Jona Bechtolt of the band Yacht, gave us an off-the-record rundown of a bizarre and twisted plan for the release of their next single, I Wanna Fuck You Till I'm Dead. They'd created a One Night in Paris-style sex tape spoof with a twist: Instead of peeling off their clothes, the couple would peel back their flesh to reveal hypersexualized alien bodies.
Google apologizes again for its ill-fated 'Mic Drop' prank
Every year Google insists on unleashing a storm of April Fool's "jokes," but this time one had a problem. Last night its Gmail "Mic Drop" feature that responded with a dismissive GIF and closed the conversation permanently had to be pulled after user complaints. Now in a second update to its blog post, Google has acknowledged its mistake, focusing on three points: It should've asked users before turning on the feature and/or added a confirmation step, it placed the Mic Drop button too close to other more familiar elements, and there was a bug that could cause the regular send button to still send Mic Drops. Hopefully any damage wasn't too catastrophic, and Google says it's working on bringing Mic Dropped messages with further replies back to user's inboxes.
SXSW apologizes, launches day-long Online Harassment Summit
South by Southwest organizers earned the ire of the internet this week after canceling two panels aimed at addressing online harassment and "GamerGate" culture in the video game industry. SXSW canceled the discussions because it received "numerous threats of violence" -- a reason that, to many, gave power to those threats and in fact encouraged continued harassment. Both Buzzfeed and Vox Media swiftly announced plans to skip SXSW entirely unless the panels were reinstated. Today, SXSW Interactive Director Hugh Forrest offered an apology and announced the Online Harassment Summit for March 12th. It's a full-day event that SXSW says will feature people from both of the canceled panels, plus a lineup of additional speakers. SXSW will live-stream the summit all day, for free. However, one panel organizer says she's not on-board with this new solution.
Early Halo: MCC buyers receive free month of Xbox Live Gold
Halo: The Master Chief Collection has provided a troubled walk down memory lane, but at least fans are being rewarded for their patience and support. Messages detailing a free month of Xbox Live Gold showed up in the inboxes of Spartans yesterday, referring to the gift as "appreciation for your continued support of Halo: The Master Chief Collection." The notice adds that players don't need to do anything further to redeem their free month of Gold. Bonnie Ross, head of development at 343 Industries, explained in an apology last month that a free month of Gold would be gifted to The Master Chief Collection players in an effort to "make this right." Additional thank-yous are coming in the form of a free, 1080p, 60 fps Halo 3: ODST campaign, due to arrive sometime this spring, and an exclusive nameplate and avatar. Anyone who purchased The Master Chief Collection between its November 11 launch date and December 19, 2014 is eligible to receive these gifts, though a reworked version of the Relic map from Halo 2 will also eventually be offered to all players via a free update. [Image: Joystiq]
Facebook says it 'can do better' with its 'Year in Review' slideshows
Facebook inadvertently opened a lot of old wounds with its automated "Year in Review" slideshow feature. While it was meant to highlight people's favorite moments, it also reminded many of deaths, divorces and other tragedies that they tried to leave in the past. The company is clearly ready to own up to its mistake, though. Product manager Jonathan Gheller has apologized to Eric Meyer (whose story about his daughter's death drew attention to the problem) for the insensitivity and declared that the "Year in Review" team "can do better" in the future. While it's not clear what those changes will involve, The Guardian notes that Facebook has already changed the ending of the slideshow from "it's been a great year" to "see you next year" to avoid making presumptions.
Assassin's Creed Unity free game offer now active for Season Pass buyers
Ubisoft is giving away free games to Assassin's Creed Unity players who purchased a Season Pass before November 25, fulfilling an offer made in response to widespread bug reports following Unity's November launch. Eligible players can head to this site to submit a claim. Ubisoft is offering affected players their choice of one of several featured free games, including Far Cry 4, The Crew, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, Watch Dogs, Rayman Legends, and Just Dance 2015. All Assassin's Creed Unity players will receive the upcoming Dead Kings DLC expansion free of charge once it launches next year. Season Pass buyers have until March 15, 2015, to redeem their free game codes. [Image: Ubisoft)
Microsoft issues apology over late XBLIG payments
Microsoft has addressed late payment concerns raised by developers enrolled in the Xbox Live Indie Games program, and the company is "working hard" to pay affected studios by the end of the month. "Due to a technical issue in our payment system, we recently learned that some payments to select developers in the Xbox Live Indie Games program on Xbox 360 were delayed," Microsoft's statement reads. "Our partners are important to us and we work hard to help make sure they have a great development experience. This was an unfortunate error and we are working hard to fix it. We apologize for this incident and anticipate developers will receive payments within the next two weeks." Bleed developer BootDisk Revolution, Trailer Park King creator Freelance Games, and other studios have previously spoken out regarding the issue. Speaking to Gamasutra, Charlie Murder developer James Silva notes that Microsoft has been "way later in the past" with regard to XBLIG revenue payouts. Launched in 2008, the community-driven Xbox Live Indie Games service presents a lower barrier to entry than traditional Xbox Live Arcade and retail game releases. To date, more than 3,000 games have launched for the program, including standouts like The Impossible Game, CastleMiner Z, and Protect Me Knight. [Image: Microsoft]
Ubisoft apologizes for 'Assassin's Creed' bugs with free add-ons and games
Ubisoft may not have a way to turn back time and release Assassin's Creed Unity without a slew of glitches, but it's at least trying to make amends to jilted gamers. The studio has announced that it's giving every Unity owner a free copy of the upcoming Dead Kings add-on that they'd have previously had to buy. That's not a radical concept in itself (Driveclub's developer is doing the same), but Ubi is going one step further by giving Season Pass holders their choice of free game, such as Far Cry 4 or Watch Dogs. And for that matter, it's scrapping sales of the Season Pass altogether. Existing subscribers will still get extra content, but latecomers will have to buy extras one at a time. The company is clearly aware that it did something wrong -- let's just hope that it learns its lesson and takes its time polishing future games. [Image credit: King_Anesti, Steam Community]
Assassin's Creed: Unity CEO apologizes for bugs, offers free DLC
Everyone who owns Assassin's Creed: Unity will receive the Dead Kings DLC for free once that launches, Ubisoft Montreal and Toronto CEO Yannis Mallat says in a blog post. The freebie is an apology for the technical issues that have plagued Unity since launch. "Unfortunately, at launch, the overall quality of the game was diminished by bugs and unexpected technical issues," Mallat says. "I want to sincerely apologize on behalf of Ubisoft and the entire Assassin's Creed team. These problems took away from your enjoyment of the game, and kept many of you from experiencing the game at its fullest potential." In our review of Unity, we noted that the game was "in dire need of a technical re-tweaking." Today, Ubisoft launched the game's third patch, bringing in more than 300 fixes. Players who purchased the Season Pass for Unity would have already received the Dead Kings DLC, and they are now entitled to one free Ubisoft game from the following lineup: The Crew, Far Cry 4, Watch Dogs, Assassin's Creed Black Flag, Rayman Legends and Just Dance 2015. Ubisoft is discontinuing sale of the Season Pass, the FAQ reads. [Image: Ubisoft/King_Anesti]
