Gadgets
Online Games That Involves Betting, Wagering Could Be Banned by Karnataka
Karnataka is proposing an amendment to the Karnataka Police Act to include such online games, seeking to ban “any act or risking money, or otherwise on the unknown result of an event including on a game of skill,” according to the bill seen by Reuters. Many offences under the law already attract prison time, and the bill proposes to increase these penalties.
The Karnataka government has said the bill is needed as youngsters from rural areas, mostly idle in the city during the COVID-19 pandemic, “have shown a tendency of becoming habitual gamblers.”
It comes as online fantasy gaming platforms such as Tiger Global-backed Dream11 and Sequoia Capital-funded Mobile Premier League (MPL) that offer fantasy cricket and football games have become increasingly popular in India.
Karnataka, home to some of the world’s biggest tech companies and India’s tech capital Bengaluru, is the fourth Indian state to seek to ban online games involving prize money after Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh.
“Business of MPL, Dream11, and everyone in the sector will suffer,” said one gaming industry source, who declined to be named because the person was not authorised to speak to the media.
“These states are important – they roughly account for 20 percent of (the total) business for such companies.”
The online gaming industry in India has grown over the past few years. Foreign investors have shown growing interest in backing Indian gaming startups since last year as the COVID-19 pandemic drove people stuck indoors towards such games.
India currently has more than 400 online gaming startups and, as of 2020, had around 360 million gamers, according to an EY-All India Gaming Federation report. Online gamers are expected to grow to 510 million by 2022 and the industry will be worth $2 billion (roughly Rs. 14,750 crores) by 2023, the report said.
The Dream11 and MPL platforms, offering paid contests with cash prize for players, have expanded rapidly in recent months with extensive marketing and hires. Dream11 is seeking a US listing by early next year, local media has said.
Such growth has sparked concerns that these platforms, like gambling, are addictive and can cause financial harm.
India’s Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states have all banned online gaming offering cash prizes over the past few years, though Tamil Nadu’s bill was subsequently struck down by its high court.
Sandeep Chilana, a New Delhi-based lawyer, said such laws have a weak legal standing given the Supreme Court has repeatedly said skill games – like fantasy cricket – are not like gambling which remains largely prohibited across India.
“Indian states are overreaching and will face legal challenges by banning such skill games,” said Chilana.
The Karnataka proposal also comes at an inconvenient time for the industry, during the popular Indian Premier League cricket tournament. Fantasy gaming competitions around the tournament are one of the biggest fee generators for online gaming companies, said a second industry source, who asked not to be identified.
The potential ban will also hurt professional players, said Esports Players Welfare Association, a non-profit for online gamers.
“Games and esports are areas where skill can be developed as a result of which it is not a sin activity,” the group said.
“At Xbox, we believe that with better tools, creators can make even more extraordinary games,” Haiyan Zhang, GM, Xbox Gaming AI, said in a blog post. “This partnership will bring together: Inworld’s expertise in working with generative AI models for character development, Microsoft’s cutting-edge cloud-based AI solutions including Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft Research’s technical insights into the future of play, and Team Xbox’s strengths in revolutionizing accessible and responsible creator tools for all developers.”
The aforementioned AI design copilot is a toolset that will help game designers turn prompts into scripts and dialogue trees. In contrast, the character runtime will enable dynamically generated plot beats and quests. We’ve already seen heavy AI integration in games by way of procedural generation — a more recent example being the 1000+ planets in Starfield. Not to mention, enemy AI has been around for way longer.
Inworld made headlines in August when it launched a modded story mode for Grand Theft Auto V, Sentient Streets, in which players had to investigate the rise of a bizarre AI-worshipping cult — a segment loaded with characters that spoke in AI-generated dialogue, on the fly. The mod was later taken down by publisher Take-Two, leaving a permanent strike on the creator Bloc’s YouTube channel. As per The Verge, Inworld’s AI technology can also be used for narration in top-down RPGs to warn players about any events awaiting off-screen and respond to questions like we’ve seen in the past year with AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Bing Chat. Microsoft has also been heavily banking on artificial intelligence, having made a $10 billion (about Rs. 83,254 crore) investment in OpenAI. The company has also integrated AI tools into its popular suite of services and also added an AI copilot to Windows.
Despite being a Microsoft-affiliated AI toolset, it would be interesting to see whether titles using them will be allowed to thrive on other platforms. In July, Valve claimed that it would be cracking down on games that included AI-generated assets if the developer didn’t own the copyright to the piece of art. For the uninitiated, when you insert a prompt to create something in AI, the software simply repurposes existing assets found online and mushes them together — basically stealing from other artists and writers without appropriate commercial licenses. Infringing them would lead to the game not being distributed on Steam, forcing the developers to seek proper licenses for the asset by reaching out to the AI companies involved. It’s unclear how Microsoft’s partnership will play out — as long as AI content is being used as a catalyst to innovate and create something new, it should be fine.
In a post on X shared by BSNL’s Andhra Pradesh (@bsnl_ap_circle) unit, the company confirmed that BSNL users can upgrade their older 2G or 3G SIMs to a 4G SIM for free. Not only will the upgrade be free, but a promotional image shared with the post suggests that users who opt for the upgrade will also receive 4GB of free data that will be valid for three months. It is speculated that BSNL is aiming to boost its upcoming 4G services with this offer. The announcement was first spotted by Telecom Talk.
To access the free data offer and the free upgrade, BSNL users are requested to get in touch with executives at BSNL’s Customer Service Centre, franchisee or retailer stores, or contact one of their Direct Selling Agents (DSA). The promo image also adds in a finer print that the offer is available with certain terms and conditions, but hasn’t detailed any, so far.
Reliance’s Jio recently launched the 4G-supported Bharat B1 feature phone in India. The handset is priced at Rs. 1,299 in India. Alongside 4G connectivity, the phone comes with JioCinema and JioSaavn applications pre-installed.
The Jio Bharat B1 is equipped with the JioPay application, which is said to allow users to make UPI payments. Aiming to increase accessibility, the phone supports 23 languages overall, including multiple regional languages.
Realme, via Weibo, announced the arrival of the Realme GT 5 Pro in China. The display of the handset is confirmed to offer 3000 nits peak brightness. It has also been teased to offer heat dissipation with a surface area of around 10,000mm2. It is confirmed to ship with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC. The post doesn’t specify the exact launch date of the smartphone, however, given the release of the teasers, the launch could be just around the corner.
The Realme GT 5 Pro has been in the news a lot lately. It is expected to feature a 6.78-inch (1,264×2,780 pixels) AMOLED display and is tipped to come in 8GB, 12GB, and 16GB RAM options along with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB inbuilt storage options.
For optics, the Realme GT 5 Pro is said to have a triple rear camera unit comprising two 50-megapixel sensors and an 8-megapixel shooter at the rear. The camera setup might include a Sony LYTIA LYT808 sensor, an OmniVision OV08D10 secondary sensor, and a Sony IMX890 telephoto sensor. For selfies, there could be a 32-megapixel sensor at the front. It is said to carry a 5,400mAh battery with support for 100W wired charging and 50W wireless charging.
The Realme GT 5 Pro is expected to come with upgrades over Realme GT 5. The latter was launched in China in August with a price tag of CNY 2,999 for the base model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
-
Camera3 years agoCharles ‘Chuck’ Geschke, co-founder of Adobe and inventor of the PDF, dies at 81
-
TOP SCEINCE7 days agoInherited predisposition for higher muscle strength may protect against common morbidities
-
TOP SCEINCE7 days ago
Stellar winds of three sun-like stars detected for the first time
-
world news5 days ago
Jewish diaspora expresses concern as Iranian drones launch toward Israel
-
TOP SCEINCE7 days ago
Brightest gamma-ray burst of all time came from the collapse of a massive star
-
Camera2 years agoSony a7 IV sample gallery
-
world news5 months ago
Gulf, France aid Gaza, Russia evacuates citizens
-
TOP SCEINCE3 days ago
Plastic pollution can kill variety of ocean embryos
