Reuters:
SAP reports Q1 revenue up 6% YoY to €9.56B, vs. €9.53B est., non-IFRS operating profit up 17% to €2.87B, cloud revenue up 19% to €5.96B; SAP up 10%+ after hours  —  Europe's largest software maker SAP (SAPG.DE) on Thursday reported a 17% increase in first-quarter profit …

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Platform: PlayStation 5
Publisher: PlayStation Studios
Developer: Housemarque
Release: April 30, 2026

Discovering a powerful (and profitable) new element on a faraway planet is a sci-fi staple that is especially prevalent in modern media, but Saros embraces this trope by making Lucenite’s home planet, Carcosa, the stuff of inescapable but wholly engaging nightmares. Protagonist Arjun fights to maintain his sanity, find a lost love, and stay alive (failing often) against an onslaught of lasers and monsters while the people around him descend into vague madness. All this while your AI-driven corporate overlords demand results. The premise is strong and surprisingly relatable in the modern landscape, while the action is dangerous, joyful, and demanding of your attention in a way few games can compete.

Tonally and sometimes directly inspired by Robert W. Chambers' Lovecraft-adjacent short story collection, The King in Yellow (which I can confirm through experience is not required reading), Saros follows a collection of astronauts on a one-way trip to an alien planet that is, to be blunt, a no-good place. Arjun is a soldier among scientists there to save lives, but is perhaps selfishly focused on saving one in particular. The opaque nature of the story is sometimes unsatisfying, and though there are plenty of literal threats Arjun must dodge, counter, absorb, and defeat, the narrative is mainly focused on an existential danger. The result is that the cast feels mostly disposable, which is perhaps intentional, but I wanted to know more about them before their recorded monologues found throughout Carcosa descended into borderline incoherent ramblings about The Yellow Shore. The larger story leaves you with much to think about in a way I appreciate, and I eagerly continued the game after seeing credits to learn more, even if I wasn’t completely emotionally invested.

But frankly, even if the story was a complete dud, I would have struggled to put down Saros as its action is impeccable and challenging without ever bordering on the overwhelming. Saros is not a sequel to Housemarque’s excellent 2021 game, Returnal, but it does use its gameplay as the baseline and re-examines it to foster a more welcoming and rewarding system. The shield, which allows you to take in the energy of certain projectiles to power strong weapons, creates myriad worthwhile options in how you approach staying alive in the chaos.

Controlling Arjun is flawless. He leaps and dodges with precision that should make Mario take notes. Firing off all of Saros’ weapons feels powerful and exciting, though you will quickly gravitate towards a personal favorite (shout out to the Smart Rifle). The Power Weapons, which are managed with the shield, are completely satisfying and available when you need them most.

Outside of the action, another of Saros’ primary strengths is the Armor Matrix. Attempting runs is a familiar process for rogue genre fans in that you will quickly gain temporary strength as you explore and fight, but between attempts is a massive skill tree where you can drop your collected Lucenite and Halcyon for permanent upgrades. Plenty of rogue games offer permanent upgrades, but Saros is particularly satisfying as its upgrades offer worthwhile improvement choices that cater to specific playstyles. Even just one solid run unlocks dozens of upgrades at once. The process feels fast and less incremental making the good attempts feel even better and the abysmal failures not feel like wastes of time. Saros is a challenging game, but the Armor Matrix makes the whole experience much more approachable. If you are intimidated by the genre or were scared off by Returnal, know that Saros is much more welcoming.

 

The structure of Saros, which is much friendlier to shorter sessions and allows you to leave and pick up a run later, is also thoughtful in a way that makes it all feel much more doable in the face of challenge. At the expense of being less powerful (but still very strong), you can teleport to specific locations. I love this feature as it eliminates two of my primary ongoing personal frustrations with the genre: replaying the same areas over and over and refighting the same bosses. Of course, you can attempt runs from the starting line and fight the bosses again, and there are incentives for doing so, but I want the option to skip the bosses and areas I already beat in every rogue game. I am an impatient gamer, and Saros is okay with that.

Saros’ biggest shortcoming is that I was not as emotionally invested in its narrative and characters as I hoped to be. The plight of team Echelon IV did not move me, but I was fascinated by the abrasive world, the heartless Soltari corporation, and I was intentionally and successfully left wanting more from its engaging mysteries. I don’t share this sentiment for the gameplay, however. Moving, shooting, improving (both in stats and skill), winning, and even losing is an unequivocal joy, and I only wish I could write this final sentence faster so I can hurry up and get back to planet Carcosa and attempt another run.

Score: 9.25

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Reuters:
Singapore is slowly emerging as a neutral ground for AI companies, offering an alternative place to build without worrying about US or Chinese regulations  —  Singapore is transforming from East-West gateway to neutral ground for the AI sector, with Chinese startups hoping …

Ephrat Livni, reporting for The New York Times (gift link):

Britain aims to raise a “smoke-free generation” by permanently banning the sale or supply of tobacco to anyone born in 2009 or after, with a bill that was approved by Parliament on Tuesday.

The bill applies to people currently 17 years old or younger and aims to keep them from ever picking up the habit in their lifetime. The proposal is expected to soon go into law after the final formality of approval by King Charles III.

Lawmakers say that in practice, the measure means the age of sale for tobacco products will rise over time as the targeted demographic group grows older and could lead to a smoke-free society. The law will apply in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

I’ve never smoked and I’m strongly in favor of most — maybe all? — of the smoking bans and tobacco-related public health measures that have been passed in my lifetime. I can’t imagine going back to when smoking was permitted in restaurants, bars, airplanes, and public spaces. I’m also strongly in favor of stiff taxes on tobacco products to discourage their use.

But this U.K. law seems bonkers to me. To me, something ought to be either legal for adults or not. The idea that if you’re already 18 years old you can buy tobacco products for the rest of your life, but if you were born in 2009 or later, you’ll never be permitted to, is so contrary to my sense of fairness that I’m finding it hard to put my objection into words. All adults should be equals under the law. That’s my take in a nut. If smoking should be illegal, it should be illegal for everyone. I’ve never heard of a law like this anywhere in the world. It’s like they’re enshrining in law that everyone in the U.K. who is today a child is forever a child when it comes to tobacco. If there are examples of similar laws I’m unaware of, I’d love to hear about them. [Update: Brookline Massachusetts passed a town ordinance like this in 2021, and after it was upheld by the state supreme court in 2024, a few other MA towns have too. My cynical guess is that the only effect of this law is to annoy young Brookline smokers by making them drive a few miles to buy smokes, but if the actual effect is that fewer young Brooklinites (sp?) smoke, that’s great. But I also doubt that anyone in Brookline’s municipal government is going to commission a study to see if the law had any practical effect on smoking rates.]

Maybe the British are different, but there’s no way this law would work in America. First, I don’t think such a law would ever gain popular traction. But even if it did, it would just create a black market. At least when we banned booze, we banned it for everyone.

Bloomberg:
Sources: AI coding firm Cognition is in early talks to raise hundreds of millions of dollars at a $25B valuation, up from $10.2B announced in September 2025  —  Cognition AI Inc. is in early talks to raise a new round of funding that would more than double its valuation to $25 billion …