Hasta La Gadget!

You might think a network-specific streaming services like Paramount+ doesn’t stand a chance in a grim market when even Netflix is floundering, but it’s apparently thriving. The company has revealed that Paramount+ added 3.7 million subscribers in the second quarter, with more than 43 million total users. And that’s after withdrawing from Russia — if it weren’t for that, the service would have added 4.9 million viewers.

ViacomCBS partly credited the surge to expansions to more countries, including the UK, Ireland and South Korea. However, it also pointed to success with content that included its Halo series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, movies like Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and live Championship League matches. Paramount+ is still leaning on its sci-fi audience, then, but not as much as it has in the past.

The overall Paramount+ subscriber count is still tiny compared to Netflix (220.7 million) and Amazon Prime Video (over 200 million). Its growth is a sharp contrast to Netflix’s nearly 1 million lost subscribers, though. The firm is also keen to note that it had the most sign-ups and net additions of any US-based premium subscription streaming service in the quarter, according to Antenna data. In other words, Paramount+ was outperforming all its main rivals, including Apple TV+, Hulu and Peacock.

Whether or not that trend continues is uncertain. Paramount+ is still expanding to more countries, and should be available in 60 markets by the end of the year. It can count on those newcomers to boost its numbers for a while. Eventually, though, the streamer will be more reliant on the quality of its catalog to grow its audience. And while there have clearly been some hits, heavyweights like Amazon and Netflix still have plenty of money and momentum in their favor.

Cue the Jurassic Park theme song: Scientists in Switzerland appear to have pulled off a remarkable feat, creating sterile and seemingly healthy mice that can produce the sperm cells of a rat. These rodent chimeras weren’t able to make viable rat offspring, but the work could lead to a new method of preserving species…

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The Icelandic volcano Fagradalsfjall, located near the country’s capital Reykjavik and its airport Keflavik, has travelers both worried and in awe as the hotspot spews lava into the surrounding areas.

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Arclight Rumble wasn’t going to be the only upcoming Warcraft mobile game, according to a report. Bloombergsources claim Blizzard and NetEase have canceled a World of Warcraft spinoff mobile title that had been in development for three years. Nicknamed Neptune, it would have been a massively multiplayer game set in a different era of the fantasy universe. It wouldn’t simply have been a WoW phone port, to put it another way.

While the exact reasons for the cancelation weren’t mentioned, one of the insiders said Blizzard and NetEase “disagreed over terms” and ultimately decided to scrap the unannounced game. NetEase supposedly had over 100 developers attached to the project. The two were rumored to have previously canceled another Warcraft mobile release, a Pokémon Go-style augmented reality game, after four years of effort.

Spokespeople from both companies declined to comment. If the rumor is accurate, it suggests Blizzard is struggling to adapt to the rise of mobile gaming. While Diablo Immortal appears to be a success and is joining the well-established Hearthstone, the developers will still have sunk massive resources into other games that never reached players.

There are strong incentives to take these risks, however. Mobile games can be highly lucrative, particularly in countries like China — Genshin Impact has pulled in $3 billion since release, according to Sensor Tower estimates. A hit could easily boost Blizzard’s bottom line, not to mention spur demand for its existing computer- and console-bound games.

The climate crisis has created a huge sex imbalance for Florida’s sea turtles. More frequent and hotter heat waves baking the sand on the state’s beaches means that seemingly every new hatchling is female, turtle researchers told Reuters.

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