The Game Awards 2020 will feature a host of DC and Marvel alumni and, of course, Geoff Keighley.
The Game Awards
The Game Awards are over for another year. Yes, Gaming’s grandest stage of all, the Super Bowl of video game awards shows, the showcase of the digital immortals — whatever you want to call it — has come and gone. There was not a single attendee this year, with the 30 Angels handed out online across a three-hour event broadcasting from Los Angeles, London and Tokyo. The awards were great! But we know the real reason to tune in is for all the “World Premieres,” showcasing new video games and future releases for the first time.
We have the full list of winners just below, so get ready to game on, gamers!
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The Game Awards are generally more The Game Adverts with an award show mixed in, but we had a great time last year bringing you all the winners, some of the losers, reactions online, surprises and every single trailer that dropped during the show… so we’re doing it again. Last year, the Xbox Series X was unveiled with an eye-watering look at the next Hellblade game. In the year since, there’s been a pandemic and the next generation of consoles have made their way into players’ hands. We were given a look at what’s in store for those consoles in 2021 and there is a LOT here.
You’ll find the list of winners down below and all the trailers and world premieres from the night. We also have a play-by-play of the night and the bottom of the page. Grab a Monster* or a coffee and settle in, did I mention there’s a LOT here? Let’s go.
*I am not sponsored by Monster.
The Game Awards 2020 Winners
Category winners are in bold. The esports categories and content awards are toward the bottom. The video game awards will be listed in the order they’re handed out.
Blast Premier: Spring 2020 European Finals (CS:GO)
Call of Duty League Championship 2020
IEM Katowice 2020 (CS:GO)
League of Legends World Championship 2020
Overwatch League Grand Finals 2020
Best Esports Coach
Danny “Zonic” Sorensen (CS:GO)
Dae-Hee “Crusty” Park (OWL)
Fabian “Grabbz” Lohmann (LOL)
Lee “Zefa” Jae-min (LOL)
Raymond “Rambo” Lussier (COD)
Best Esports Athlete
Ian “Crimsix” Porter (COD)
Heo “Showmaker” Su (LOL)
Kim “Canyon” Geon-Bu (LOL)
Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuevas-Castro (COD)
Matthieu “Zywoo” Herbaut (CS:GO)
Content Creator of the Year
Alanah Pearce
Jay Ann Lopez
Nickmercs
Timthetatman
Valkyrae
The Game Awards trailers and premieres
As we find the trailers on YouTube, we will update down here!
Loop Hero
Sea of Solitude: Director’s Cut
Shady Part of Me
Nier Replicant
Century: Age of Ashes
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – Sephiroth Announcement
Perfect Dark
Back 4 Blood
The Callisto Protocol
Open Roads
Dragon Age
Endless Dungeon
Crimson Desert
Seasons
ARK II
F.I.S.T
Odyssey: Elite Dangerous
Evil Dead: The Game
Returnal
Outriders: Mantra of Survival trailer
It Takes Two
Elder Scrolls Online: Gates of Oblivion
Monster Hunter Rise
Ruined King: A League of Legends Story
Mass Effect “will continue”
The Game Awards play-by-play and reactions
Today is very busy if you are at all interested in content. There’s a big Disney Investor Day stream happening right now, where the monolithic Mouse is revealing a ton of new TV series and movies. Worth checking out if you’re interested in content, which… you surely are!
Alright. Here we go.
The Game Awards 2020!
If you want to find out what happened in the pre-show… just scroll a little further down.
LET’S KICK THIS THING INTO HIGH GEAR.
First up, it’s a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC character reveal. A short cinematic reveals the new character to be Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII. I did not expect that. Twitch chat is going silly. We thought Mario was dead… but he is okay. Phew.
Brie Larson is here to present the first award. It’s for the Best Performance and it goes to Laura Bailey for her performance as Abby in The Last of Us Part 2. It also appears her phone is dinging, which is a nice little touch and a reminder everyone’s doing this thing from home this year.
Not to mess with Geoff but I feel like this suit is a little bland. Carn, big G.
HERE’S ANOTHER WORLD PREMIERE. This one is coming from The Initiative, one of the studios under Xbox Game Studios. The trailer starts with a beautifully-rendered Earth and space station. We’re flying through a futuristic world and then… out of nowhere we hear the name Agent Dark. This is a trailer for Perfect Dark. WOW.
ANOTHER WORLD PREMIERE. This one is all zombies… and it seems like we might be getting a new Left 4 Dead… it’s actually Back 4 Blood. “We wanted to do more and bigger,” says Chris Ashton from Turtle Rock. He throws straight into gameplay for Back 4 Blood… note: Pre-Alpha. We’ll post it down the bottom of the page when it’s ready. It’s coming in June 2021.
So, uh, anyone know when we might get another award? Ha! Just kidding, awards, aschmords. Give me the hype trailers.
Hood Outlaws & Legends gets a trailer, then Nintendo drops an Indies showcase which …look. I can’t keep up with that guys. I am only human. I am but one man. At this point, I am more RSI than man. My wrist is bouncing all over the place. I need carrot cake.
AWARD TIME. We’re back with some real awards and there’s a great little moment with Sean Murray, head on No Man’s Sky. It’s absolutely stunning how far that game has come. There was such an uproar at its release and now look at it, winning a Game Award for Best Ongoing Game beating the likes of Fortnite … Cool.
ANOTHER WORLD PREMIERE. I am just copy-pasting world premiere now. I will dream of world premieres when I sleep tonight. But here we go with The Callisto Protocol? It seems like a sci-fi title and also maybe a horror title? There’s a two-mouthed monster. It has one mouth and then another mouth below. How would you kiss it? The top mouth first? Lots of questions here. Kind of got Dead Space vibes from it… We deserve a new Dead Space.
Wait. Striking Distance studios CEO Glen Schofield is a survival horror set on Jupiter’s moon Callisto. YES. Give it to me. Callisto is one of Jupiter’s forgotten moons. We always hear about bloody Io, Europa and Ganymede. Get out.
QUICKFIRE AWARDS TIME. Here we go with four awards. Best VR/AR, Best Sports/Racing, Best Action, Best Art Direction.
Elden Ringgrabs… not really an award but the Most Anticipated Game. That’s the George R. R. Martian game, from the creators of Dark Souls. Should be goooooood.
WORLD PREMIERE, AGAIN. This one looks delightful. It’s called Open Roads. Check the trailer because my hands are sore but this is from the Gone Home team. Will be legit.
Disco Elysium: The Final Cut is coming in March 2021, a free upgrade for all players. Can I call this a World Premiere? I guess so. It’s a WORLD PREMIERE. Can’t wait to count up these World Premieres later and absolutely flip out. This is all going so fast. It’s insanity.
The full Voice acting for Disco Elysium is a big move because that game is like reading a long existential novel with dad jokes #TheGameAwards
WORLD PREMIERE TIME. A big one. It’s for Dragon Age. I can’t even tell you what any of this means because I don’t play every single game on the planet and Dragon Age has never been a big one for me.
WORLD PREMIERE TIME. I have not caught up. I am so far behind. I don’t even know where to look. I am sorry. Go on with out me. Tell my parents I loved them. This one is called Endless Dungeon.
WORLD PREMIERE TIME. It’s Crimson Desert —Geoff tells everyone it features actual gameplay footage and it’s beautiful. It’s an MMO with a strong single player and we’ve known about it for a while but here comes some big gameplay. It looks absolutely immaculate. Geoff was not lying. The MOUNTAINS. I want to run along them and dip my face in the cold streams and bring the water to my face. It looks… real? SNOW. Let me lay in it. DUST. Ew. Bad.
WE ARE BACK TO AWARDS HERE PEOPLE. John David Washington, who plays a character called Narrative in the film Tenet, is giving out the award for Best Narrative. We are through the looking glass here, people. This is VIDEO GAMES. Alright, he announces the winner as The Last of Us Part 2. This is the third? award… for TLOU2? I think so.
MUPPETS TIME. We are now in the Muppets part of the show, which has become a standard part of the Game Awards, following the success of Beaker and Goose last year. He’s here for a WORLD PREMIERE. It is… Overcooked is adding the Swedish Chef. Okay, yes, that passes as a World Premiere I guess!
Is anybody reading this? Please help me. I am trapped in the video games sales and advert machine. Reggie, is that you? Can you help me? Anyone? Is someone there? [endless screaming]
Whoa, sorry about that. It’s been a weird 10 minutes. We had an advert to help you stop vaping, a Call of Duty trailer and now we’re going into a short music session to celebrate Mario turning 35 years old. Oh man, the drummer was killing it! I’m back. This makes me happy. I am okay. Thanks for your concern.
AWARDS TIME. Wow, it’s Gal Gadot! Wonder Woman herself. She’s here to present the Games for Impact awards, which goes to Tell Me Why. That’s a cracking game.
STRAIGHT INTO WORLD PREMIERE. And it’s Vin Diesel. Vin DIESEL. He’s here without any sort of fast car or a shirt. He’s fighting some dudes and next minute a freaking dinosaur appears out of the forest. AND EATS A PERSON. What the hell, this is the best Fast & Furious yet. IT HAS FEATHERS. It’s ARK II, starring Vin Diesel. Not sure if the “starring Vin Diesel” HAS to be in the title or not, but I would say so. The team also announce an Ark animated series. A Dinosaur Anime. Dinosaurs are back. 2021, 2022. I am calling it.
The Vin Diesel game has memes going everywhere. It’s beautiful.
I wonder if this game also stars Dwayne ‘Turok’ Johnson
TRAILER TIME. It’s for Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. Lots of dissonance for me with this one. It’s showing a winter wonderland and down here in Australia it’s FREAKING HOT. It was 120 degrees Fahrenheit. I want summer clothes. Shorts please!
GAMEPLAY REVEAL. Odyssey: Elite Dangerous allows you to explore on foot for the first time. The song is Space Oddity by David Bowie because you just can’t do sci-fi without Major Tom or Ground Control. It makes sense. Arrives in Early 2021.
A short trailer for Checkpoint which brings mental health resources to the gaming community. Nice.
TRAILERSsssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. They will be at the bottom of the page, no world premieres in here but have a look anyway.
AWARDS TIME. We are back with Nolan North, the man of 1,000 different video game voices. He’s presenting the Best Multiplayer Game and it goes to the Among Us team. This is wonderful. A beautiful moment. This is the game that people like AOC have been absolutely hammering lately. The winners are emotional! I love it. Beautiful!
WORLD PREMIERE. A trailer about a cabin in the woods… they found the Book of the Dead. Wait, is it … yes, it is . Evil Dead, The Game. Dropping in 2021.
WORLD PREMIERE. A remake, Geoff tells us and it’s from Capcom. It’s Ghosts’N Goblins! Yes, YES! Underpants. But there’s also CAPCOM Arcade Stadium coming to the Switch too — you can play the classics on the Switch.
AWARDS. GEOFF goes BANG, with quickfire awards yet again just dropping five in quick succession. Wouldn’t Best Independent Game goes to Hades, Best Audio Design to The Last of Us Part 2, Best Role Playing Game goes to Final Fantasy VII Remake,Best Sim/Strategy game (weird category, come on) goes to Microsoft Flight Simulator and the Player’s Voice goes to Ghost of Tsushima, which was announced pre-show on Twitter.
AWARD TIME. Now we are into the Best Fighting Game which is sneakily the award for the game with the best use of a colon, :, because only Mortal Kombat doesn’t include one. Would you believe it though… the colon has let games down yet again. Colons are banned. Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate takes it home.
WORLD PREMIERE TIME. Here we go again people. This one is fast-paced. Coming 2021, it’s Returnal.
I am going to the toilet now. Sorry if I miss many things. WAIT NO REGGIE IS ABOUT TO JOIN US.
Josef Fares is here now for a WORLD “EXCLUSIVE” he calls it… It’s a WORLD PREMIERE but we don’t mind because he’s a bundle of joy. Just loves messing around. You may remember him from that time he swore at the Game Awards and was instantly a star. He’s revealing gameplay from It Takes Two, which looks quite playful. Gal Gadot would probably say it was “fun,” you would think. Geoff throws in that he is friends with Josef and saw the game last time he was in Stockholm… what does Geoff do all year besides play games.
REGGIE TIME. CAMERA AND AUDIO IS AVERAGE JUST LIKE I’D WANT AND EXPECT. He’s here to announce an AWARD which is the Innovation in Accessibility award. He says gaming is for everyone and gosh darn it, Reggie you are right. The award goes to The Last of Us Part 2.
WORLD PREMIERE. This one is for The Elder Scrolls Online, which is getting a new expansion in 2021. The expansion is known as Elder Scrolls Online: Gates of Oblivion. The trailer is purely cinematic and doesn’t give a lot away.
AWARDS TIME. It’s the award for Best Mobile Game and it goes to Among Us. It is their second award of the night. They are overwhelmed and so happy. It was released in 2018, but I guess it’s a thing this year so… you can win whenever. Looking forward to Pong’s inevitable comeback.
IT’S ANOTHER WORLD PREMIERE FOR YOU AND FOR ME. This one is Monster Hunter Rise. A huge franchise that I don’t really understand but people love it so, let’s go for all you Monster Hunter fans. Enjoy.
We’re back with Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam lead singer and he says he really appreciates how Future Days was used in The Last of Us Part 2. I love that he seems genuine about video games as a medium and that was a really nice little rendition. Was hoping he’d belt out Jeremy, if I am being totally honest.
I can not get over Geoff’s shoes and suit combination. I just can’t. It’s bad.
WORLD PREMIERE. We are out in the Wild West, I think? Everything goes dark. Here’s some guns. A man walking. Monsters being shot. This is VIDEO GAMES, people. There’s nothing quite like video games. Shoot a thing, hit a thing, kill a thing. You gotta love it. It’s called EVIL WEST and it’s… I mean, the title is enough right? Haha. I really do love video games, guys, I swear.
A little Among Us announcement now — it’s getting a new map called “The Airship” that will be ready in “Early 2021.” There is also a Geoff Keighley mask in Among Us now… he’s laughing about it but inside, Geoff, I can tell. This is a moment for him. The mask.
AWARDS TIME. It’s Content Creator of the Year time. “They unified us all with our shared passion for play,” says Jacksepticeye. Valkyrae takes home this award. Someone will have to explain this one to me. I am the science editor so I, uh… I am still caught up on the Ark 2 dinosaur feathers and the freakin’ game about CALLISTO. Like, hello!
WORLD PREMIERE TIME. It’s Fortnite… and HALO? Master Chief is joining Fortnite. There you go. He’s available tonight and there’s more Halo coming as well. Ninja shows up in another trailer featuring the Red vs. Blue characters Sarge and Griff. There’s a new map: Halo’s Blood Gulch is in creative mode and you can play Capture the Flag, tonight! And one more thing… Walking Dead characters Michonne and Daryl Dixon are also in Fortnite. Okay? Look, we all basically live in Fortnite now. It’s the Matrix.
This all feels like a fever dream to me. I have no concept of time or reality. Do I live in Fortnite… or has Fortnite lived within me all along? And the friends I made along the way? They’re gone… they’ve disappeared into the ether. They’ve dissolved away; bodies of pure hype rise in their place. But they cannot talk. They just play video game trailers. If you’re reading this, turn back now. You can’t go any deeper. Your bones will turn to dust, your teeth will fall out… the hair on your head will slide off your skull. There’s nothing here but video game. Video game is everything.
Everyone going okay? Great! We’re in the home stretch I think, there must be like 30 minutes left at most? I hope so. Every now an again we flick back to a Pokemon GO! advert called Wooper Watch.
We still have Keanu Reeves and Christopher Nolan to come… yet somehow we are 400 hours into the show? This is such an insane event. In a decades time will we still be doing this? I am so fascinated by this whole event.
ALRIGHT ITS WORLD PREMIERE TIME, BECAUSE WE HAVEN’T HAD ENOUGH OF THOSE HAVE WE? I mean, surely we haven’t. This one is called Ruined King: A League of Legends Story which will be coming to console and PC in 2021.
AWARD TIME: It’s Keanu. I’m awake and ready for this. Let’s go. This award is for Best Game Direction and it goes to The Last of Us Part 2, which is absolutely cleaning up at this show. I think that’s number 4 or 5? Wait, nope. It’s number SIX. Neil Druckmann is here to accept the award. He thanks the awards and all the fans. But there’s one last award Geoff tells me. It’s going to end. This is the end. Thank you.
ONE. LAST. WORLD. PREMIERE. MEANS. ITS. ALMOST. OVER. We are going through space and I feel like this could be Starfield no? The latest from Bethesda? I am, definitively, done with video games forever after this but… this might bring me back. It’s bringing me back. Nope. It’s Mass Effect. No details, but it just says Mass Effect will continue… Pretty big!
IT’S THE LAST AWARD. THE GAME OF THE YEAR. If there’s any indication from the rest of the night we are going to get a Last of Us Part 2 win. Christopher Nolan is here to bring some gravitas to the award and he introduces the London Philharmonic for a musical number showcasing the nominees. This medley rules!
The Game of the Year goes to The Last of Us Part 2. It’s over people. You made it. Thanks for joining me.
***
The pre-show!
WOW. Straight into it. The first award goes to Final Fantasy VII Remake — for Best Score and Music. It’s that easy. Only 29 to go!
The pre-show had a huge Zoom wall where there were many cameras switched off. Here we go.
Devolver Digital announces Loop Hero in the typical Loop Hero type wayfor the first World Premiere. Then we are into a second World Premiere with Tchia, by Kowloon Nights and awaceb. It’s like Breath of the Wild crossed with Moana? And you can invade the bodies of things like birds and… coconuts? You can be a coconut. That’s great. I love coconut.
The Best Action/Adventure game in the last three years has won the overall Game of the Year — will it happen again? That award goes to The Last of Us Part 2. There’s a real chance that gets GOTY, too, of course.
TRAILER TIME. Connie, the CEO of Jo-Mei, from Beautiful Berlin is here to announce Sea of Solitude will be coming to Nintendo Switch in Winter. It’s a Director’s Cut because its a “version that truly represents what I wanted to convey about the topics that are especially important in today’s difficult times.”
TRAILER TIME. Shady Part of Me gets a little cute, trailer. I kind of missed it because I was getting a coffee. But apparently, it’s out right now! Which is excellent. You can get it on PC, Switch, PS4 and Xbox One. The trailer is at the bottom of the page.
QUICK-FIRE AWARDS TIME! We are doing three in a row here. Let’s bang them out:
Best Family Game goes to Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Best Community Support goes to Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. Best Debut Game goes to Phasmophobia.
Animal Crossing saved humanity’s sanity in March of this year and winning the award is DESERVED #TheGameAwards
Cool. We’re now five awards down, so this thing should be finished in the next hour, right? No?
Oh sick, we’re going to Tokyo for Last Surprise ~Scramble~ by Lyn feat. the Persona Music Band. I could do a full hour of Persona 5 music, if we had to. Just list the winners and let Lyn kill it for an hour.
ANOTHER WORLD PREMIERE. This one from Square Enix. Fast-paced action, big swords, running, bullet hell, white hair… it has to be Nier. It is Nier Replicant.
ANOTHER WORLD PREMIERE. Please slow down. Can I have break? Are any of my editors reading this? Please help. Now there’s a digital band singing some autotune song about following and unfollowing people and cancelling people. Apparently, it’s uh.. ofk?
We’re just under three minutes until the real show kicks off… but first there’s five Esports awards going down. The winners are all listed at the end of the Winners section but it was topped by a cameo from Stephen A. Smith… he’s clearly havin’ a time.
One last trailer for the REAL thing… It’s a game called Century: Age of Ashes where you ride dragons and dogfight and spit fire and all that. Coming from Playwing in February 2021.
The federal government is ordering the dissolution of TikTok’s Canadian business after a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform, but stopped short of ordering people to stay off the app.
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced the government’s “wind up” demand Wednesday, saying it is meant to address “risks” related to ByteDance Ltd.’s establishment of TikTok Technology Canada Inc.
“The decision was based on the information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community and other government partners,” he said in a statement.
The announcement added that the government is not blocking Canadians’ access to the TikTok application or their ability to create content.
However, it urged people to “adopt good cybersecurity practices and assess the possible risks of using social media platforms and applications, including how their information is likely to be protected, managed, used and shared by foreign actors, as well as to be aware of which country’s laws apply.”
Champagne’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment seeking details about what evidence led to the government’s dissolution demand, how long ByteDance has to comply and why the app is not being banned.
A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that the shutdown of its Canadian offices will mean the loss of hundreds of well-paying local jobs.
“We will challenge this order in court,” the spokesperson said.
“The TikTok platform will remain available for creators to find an audience, explore new interests and for businesses to thrive.”
The federal Liberals ordered a national security review of TikTok in September 2023, but it was not public knowledge until The Canadian Press reported in March that it was investigating the company.
At the time, it said the review was based on the expansion of a business, which it said constituted the establishment of a new Canadian entity. It declined to provide any further details about what expansion it was reviewing.
A government database showed a notification of new business from TikTok in June 2023. It said Network Sense Ventures Ltd. in Toronto and Vancouver would engage in “marketing, advertising, and content/creator development activities in relation to the use of the TikTok app in Canada.”
Even before the review, ByteDance and TikTok were lightning rod for privacy and safety concerns because Chinese national security laws compel organizations in the country to assist with intelligence gathering.
Such concerns led the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a bill in March designed to ban TikTok unless its China-based owner sells its stake in the business.
Champagne’s office has maintained Canada’s review was not related to the U.S. bill, which has yet to pass.
Canada’s review was carried out through the Investment Canada Act, which allows the government to investigate any foreign investment with potential to might harm national security.
While cabinet can make investors sell parts of the business or shares, Champagne has said the act doesn’t allow him to disclose details of the review.
Wednesday’s dissolution order was made in accordance with the act.
The federal government banned TikTok from its mobile devices in February 2023 following the launch of an investigation into the company by federal and provincial privacy commissioners.
— With files from Anja Karadeglija in Ottawa
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?
It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.
Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:
Apple
The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.
For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.
You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.
Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.
Google
Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.
When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.
You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.
There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.
Facebook and Instagram
Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.
When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.
The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.
You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.
TikTok
The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.
Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.
X
It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.
Passwords
Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?
Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.
But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.
___
Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s competition watchdog said Thursday it’s opening a formal investigation into Google’s partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it has “sufficient information” to launch an initial probe after it sought input earlier this year on whether the deal would stifle competition.
The CMA has until Dec. 19 to decide whether to approve the deal or escalate its investigation.
“Google is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world,” the company said. “Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don’t demand exclusive tech rights.”
San Francisco-based Anthropic was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The company has focused on increasing the safety and reliability of AI models. Google reportedly agreed last year to make a multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic, which has a popular chatbot named Claude.
Anthropic said it’s cooperating with the regulator and will provide “the complete picture about Google’s investment and our commercial collaboration.”
“We are an independent company and none of our strategic partnerships or investor relationships diminish the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others,” it said in a statement.
The U.K. regulator has been scrutinizing a raft of AI deals as investment money floods into the industry to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom. Last month it cleared Anthropic’s $4 billion deal with Amazon and it has also signed off on Microsoft’s deals with two other AI startups, Inflection and Mistral.
