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On the hunt for a pair of headphones that will deliver satisfying sound without clearing out your bank account? Good affordable headphones are tricky to come by, but they do exist — you just need to know where to look.
Here at TechRadar, we test dozens of pairs of headphones every year, and in amongst them we've unearthed some wallet-friendly wonders. I asked TechRadar's audio specialists which headphones they'd recommend to buyers on a budget, and rounded up their suggestions for this article.
If it's true wireless in-ears you're after, you'd struggle to do better than the Nothing Ear (a) buds, which Audio Editor Becky Scarrott awarded a perfect five stars, calling them "a resounding home run" for the British startup and praising the noise cancellation, sound quality and battery life in particular. In the over-ear arena, Becky loves the CMF Pro. In her tests, she was impressed with the "superb" sound quality, and pleasantly surprised to discover "the sort of... personal sound profile curation [we're] more used to seeing in headphones much higher up the food chain".
Read on for more budget-maximizing buys — and hit the 'View details' button for a summary of what we thought of them in our tests, plus links to the full reviews.
Top cheap earbuds and headphones Nothing Ear (a) Pros- Fun, zealous, expansive sound
- Vastly improved active noise cancellation
- Smaller, more pocketable case
- No wireless charging support
- No flagship sound profile curation
- Solid ANC
- Lightweight build
- Truly low price
- Poor eartip fit
- Lean battery life
- Aggressive transparency mode
- Fantastic listening test
- Comfortable build
- Competitive value
- Low max volume
- Cheap-feeling case
- Touch control issues
- Sensational sound quality
- Extensive software features
- Comfy, quality construction
- On-ear controls are a little sensitive
- ANC is good rather than game-changing
- Excellent hearing tests; unexpected at the level
- Emotive, circumaural sound
- Exemplary battery life
- ANC isn't amazing
- Energy slider feels a tad gimmicky
- No hard carry case or USB-C charger in the box
- Top-tier sound
- Competitive price
- Comfortable fit
- App download pains
- Middling battery life
- Would benefit from ANC
- Great sound balance
- Lots of detail in audio
- Effective noise cancellation
- Full of useful features
- Sound feels constrained
- Noise cancellation leaks in low sounds
- Plastic feels a little cheap
From the scourge of Generative AI to the RAM crisis, from PlayStation axing discs to Xbox cutting legendary studios off at the knees, it seems like gaming is under attack from every angle. The industry is in dire straits, with studios seemingly no longer able to bank on the success of AAA blockbusters or Live Service behemoths like it used to. Even the biggest game ever, the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6, has had a troubled announcement, with its $80 price tag and discless contents getting people’s backs up.
It’s easy to feel helpless when seemingly insurmountable problems hit a medium you love, and speaking out feels like you’re merely howling into the void. But based on historic events, it's true that when enough gamers make themselves heard — and when they vote with their wallets — positive changes can occur, bad decisions can be reversed and better futures can be laid. Hey, even Xbox rolled back its Game Pass price hike (to an extent).
So we want to hear from you — which issue are you most concerned about? Participate in our poll below and tell everyone what you think. No doubt many if not all of these issues are interconnected. For instance, I can’t help but laugh at the cruel irony of the RAM being used to power the Gen AI tools for the purposes of developing games more cheaply is pushing up the price of the systems for playing those games. Of course, there’s no easy fix to any one of them, but we’ll follow up by dissecting the results and discussing the potential routes to bring gaming out from the dark place it’s currently stuck in.
- South Korean government discloses ten‑month cyberattack on the National Diplomatic Academy’s online education system
- Data stolen included user IDs, names, emails, and encrypted passwords of at least 6,000 individuals
- MFA shut down IT systems, deployed enhanced security, and delayed disclosure due to diplomatic sensitivity
Current and former employees of the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), as well as other government personnel, may have had their data siphoned out by cybercriminals in an attack that lasted for ten months.
The South Korean government has disclosed an attack against the online education system of its National Diplomatic Academy. The system, set up in 2022 by the country’s premier institution for educating and training diplomats, apparently contained a security vulnerability that unnamed threat actors managed to exploit.
In an announcement published on the official website of the South Korean government, both the details about the flaw, as well as about the attackers, were not disclosed.
Thousands are affectedHowever, it did note that the attack took place between April 2025 and February 2026. During these ten months, cybercriminals were able to steal user IDs, names, emails, as well as encrypted passwords of trainees in the National Diplomatic Academy Online Education System.
Unique identification information, sensitive information, mobile phone numbers, home addresses, and photos were not compromised, it said.
In response to the attack, MFA shut down its entire IT infrastructure and deployed “enhanced security measures”, without elaborating what these measures were. It urged all employees to remain vigilant of incoming emails, and to reach out if they receive anything “suspicious”.
While the official announcement lacks details, BleepingComputer reported that the attack impacted “at least 6,000 individuals, 350 of them being current government attachés dispatched abroad.” Citing an MFA spokesperson, the publication said the Ministry decided to disclose the incident with a five-month delay due to the “sensitive nature” of the attack, and the need to thoroughly analyze it before going public.
"We recognized this issue in February, but we announced it five months later because of the sensitivity of the matter regarding our diplomatic and security affairs, and the need for careful review and analysis," said South Korea Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Park Il.
Via BleepingComputer
- ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott calls for move from "AI chaos to AI discipline"
- Comments come after OpenAI model infiltrated Hugging Face
- McDermott says ServiceNow tools come with a "kill switch" to prevent such incidents
ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott has laid out why his company's AI offerings have an advantage over the competition, partly because of built-in controls which can cut off access when needed.
Speaking to CNBC, McDermott said ServiceNow's tools are helping businesses move “from AI chaos to AI discipline.”
“We have a kill switch that stops AI agents that go rogue, so those things don’t need to happen, and they wouldn’t happen when companies run ServiceNow,” McDermott said
Not going rogueMcDermott's comments come shortly after the much-publicized incident which saw an OpenAI model breach online repository Hugging Face.
The incident was part of an experiment from OpenAI as part of its testing of GPT‑5.6 Sol and an “even more capable pre-release model” to see how well they would perform on the ExploitGym benchmark.
Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf has called the event "a wake-up call", telling the BBC it, "will be one of the most common types of cyber attacks we see", adding that most firms are not aware that the "game has changed".
Many large software firms have experienced some disquiet over their increasing use of AI, however McDermott dismissed concerns this growing AI competition could affect ServiceNow retaining customers.
“If you look at the terms of our contracts, they’ve actually gotten longer,” McDermott said, noting that greater AI adoption should actually increase demand for tools such as those provided by ServiceNow.
“There’s going to be more AI. There’s going to be more incidents, and all these things drive more and more volume to ServiceNow,” he said.
The news came as ServiceNow reported its latest earnings, with subscription revenues of $3,877 million in Q2 2026, representing 24.5% year-over-year growth and 23% in constant currency
Prime Video just got a massive free upgrade that should be on your radar if you're interested in playing popular video games like Fallout 4, Fortnite, and EA Sports FC 26 on your TV at no extra cost.
From today, Amazon Prime subscribers using Fire TV devices in the US or UK will be able to access Amazon Luna titles from directly within the Prime Video app. Luna is the company's cloud gaming service, and lets you play entire games by streaming them directly to your device like you would a TV show or movie — simply pick what you want to play in the new games tab, connect your phone (or a compatible gamepad) to use as a controller, and you can dive straight in, with no download required.
You don't need to pay extra for this either, as a formidable library of games is already included with your Prime subscription. This includes a wide range of casual GameNight titles designed for playing with a group of family or friends (including an exclusive Angry Birds and digital versions of popular board games like Clue and Exploding Kittens), in addition to some more hardcore titles available on a rotating basis.
If you want even more games, you can upgrade to Luna Premium for an additional $9.99 / £8.99 per month.
Prime placementThe move comes as Amazon tries to get more eyes on its game streaming service, which many Prime subscribers don't even know they have access to.
"You could argue we're the largest paid gaming subscription in the world," Amazon GM of gaming Jeff Gattis laughs in a conversation ahead of today's reveal. "Problem is, not enough people know about it."
Although he argues that the service is "really easy to get to if you know where you're going," he reckons the decision to initially roll it out via a dedicated Luna website and app that you "have to actively seek out and go find" has inadvertently created too many "friction points" for otherwise potentially interested users.
"It's crazy how much value we're putting in to the Prime tier," he added. "The fact that we just had the World Cup, and the you could play FC 26 if you're a Prime member for essentially free is is amazing. But again, it's only as good as people's ability to know about it."
In addition to the prominent positioning of the new games tab, Amazon is currently working on brand awareness campaigns to help get the word out.
According to Gattis, Fire TV is also just the beginning of a wider rollout that might see the update coming to the Prime Video mobile app, and so be in front of even more eyes, in future. "The grander vision is to get it to everywhere Prime Video is, and so we're excited just for more people to discover the benefit," he teased.
Overall, he believes that all of this will help align Luna more closely with the core principles that make other Amazon services like its e-commerce offering so successful. "It's convenience," he adds, "and I think it's value. And when you think about Amazon, what are the things that it does well worldwide?"
- Guardio Labs found CVE‑2026‑48294 in Adobe Acrobat Chrome extension, enabling cross‑site data disclosure
- Attackers could steal WhatsApp Web chats if victims opened malicious landing pages with extension active
- Adobe patched the flaw in version 26.7.2.0; update recommended for 314M extension users
If you have Adobe Acrobat’s extension for Chrome, and you like chatting through WhatsApp Web, there is a potential security vulnerability you might want to address.
Security researchers from Guardio Labs discovered a “universal cross-site scripting (UXSS)-class cross-origin data disclosure vulnerability”, which is another way of saying that a website could use the flaw to read the contents of a different website, loaded in a separate tab.
The vulnerability was found in the Adobe Acrobat Chrome extension and is now tracked as CVE-2026-48294. It was given a severity score of 7.4/10 (high), and affects versions 26.5.2.2 and earlier. Guardio Labs dubbed it “HermeticReader” because of what it exploits.
"Insultingly ordinary" setupThe extension comes with different integrations, such as Google Drive or, in this case - WhatsApp Web. The WhatsApp integration component, internally known as "Hermes" is where the bug was found.
In theory, an attacker could create a new landing page and share it with the victim via email, instant messaging, SEO poisoning, or other methods. If the victim 1) has the vulnerable version of the Adobe Acrobat Chrome extension installed; 2) has WhatsApp loaded in a separate tab; and 3) opens the malicious landing page, it could trigger the extension’s vulnerable code path and allow the attackers to access everything the victim has on their WhatsApp.
Some sources argue that threat actors could use this vulnerability to pull one-time passcodes delivered via WhatsApp.
"The setup is almost insultingly ordinary: an attacker-controlled page, dressed to look like the kind of page you land on via search results, marketing emails, etc.," Guardio Labs wrote in its analysis.
"The visitor, who already has the Adobe Acrobat extension installed, opens that page. The page wakes up a dormant engine inside the extension, reaches directly into WhatsApp Web. Seconds later, the rendered WhatsApp Web view - the chat list, contact names, messages, the profile name, the text of whatever conversation is open - the whole WhatsApp in the attacker's hands."
Adobe has since publicly acknowledged the issue and thanked Guardio Labs’ researchers for their help. It has also fixed the problem in version 26.7.2.0 that’s currently available for download. The extension has more than 314 million users.
Via The Hacker News
When the trio of Samsung Galaxy Z 8 foldables — the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Galaxy Z Flip 8 — arrive in consumers' hands in the coming weeks, they will be among the first mainstream handsets, aside from the Motorola Razr Fold, to feature silicon-carbon batteries. That's a big deal for the industry, but perhaps an even bigger deal with Samsung, which, a decade ago, had one of the biggest negative smartphone battery stories in a generation.
That was way back in 2016 when the Note 7, an otherwise excellent phablet (yes, that was a thing), occasionally blew up because of battery manufacturing imperfections. Ever since then, Samsung has not only had a perfect record; it's often been at pains to explain the lengths it goes to ensure smartphone battery stability and safety.
Now, as it introduces a relatively new and somewhat untested battery technology — silicon-carbon — Samsung is again making the effort to dive deep into the construction and chemistry of these new-fangled power sources to show just how much care and effort it's putting into the new tech, and into its new foldable phones.
What is silicon-carbon?All three new Galaxy Foldables feature silicon-carbon battery technology (Image credit: Future)Silicon-carbon is not a wholesale refashioning of lithium-ion battery technology. Instead, it replaces a key component of the battery makeup, swapping the negative electrode (graphite) for silicon-carbon. This material allows for higher density (more power in less space) and far faster charging speeds. It's part of the reason why Samsung can, despite not making the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra any thicker than the Z Fold 7 (it's actually 0.1mm thinner when unfolded), make the battery larger — it's now 5,000mAh.
With Samsung now having a solid decade of battery safety under its belt, perhaps no one is questioning the quality, let alone the safety, of this new battery technology. But Samsung clearly wants to shout about it, and has been sharing extensive details.
In a recent briefing ahead of the July 22 Galaxy Unpacked event in London, Samsung executives walked us through a near-atomic-level chemistry class to explain how it's custom-building the silicon-carbon batteries to ensure they work as expected.
"With Samsung's highest standards, we carefully verified the silicon-carbon battery so that our users can trust it and use it with competence," said Samsung EVP Moon Sung-hoon.
As for what that means, Samsung told us it fully redesigned the cathode, separator, and anode, which means that, at an atomic level, Samsung is managing the chemical reaction inside the battery that delivers the power to your next Galaxy Z Fold device.
Samsung wouldn't share the exact amount of silicon-carbon that's in the batteries, but it did confirm that its new Z Fold 8 Ultra, Z Fold 8, and Z Flip 8 phones in every region would feature the new battery technology.
On coatings and voltage managementEven though we didn't learn the percentage of each battery element in the Galaxy Z8 phones, Samsung dove deep into the component construction, explaining that, in an effort to manage the reactivity of the silicon-carbon cells, it "innovated every single part of the battery system. This is why we call it the system level of innovation at battery."
A Samsung executive showed off a colorful illustration to detail all the work (sadly, I cannot share it with you here). But here's what I learned.
To the anode layer, Samsung's engineers added a micro-carbon coating, which offers protection to the layer without, thanks to carbon's natural pores, constricting it during charging and discharging,
On the cathode layer, they "injected additional atoms" to manage the naturally higher voltage and stability of the cells. To maintain that higher voltage, they added a solid electrolyte interface (SEI) that adds a "small coating to the anode cells". This also manages the cell reactivity.
Finally, for the chemical reaction that occurs in the battery, Samsung added a "hyperporosity separator," which has larger holes without reducing the stress or durability of the cell's separators, and therefore helps maintain stability.
While most of us non-chemical engineers might feel like we've just about wrapped our minds around this information, this is an unprecedented level of battery construction detail, which I don't think Samsung would have shared if not for its history with batteries.
For consumers, though, this may not matter as much as the fact that these are larger-capacity batteries in smaller frames that charge far faster than their predecessors — and that will feel like a win for most Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Z Fold 8, and Z Flip 8 owners.
For our early impressions of all three new phones, check out our hands-on Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra preview, hands-on Galaxy Z Fold 8 preview, and hands-on Galaxy Z Flip 8 preview.
Since Dutton Ranch season 2 was renewed a week before the season 1 finale, I assumed it would be a good few months — perhaps even until the end of 2026 — before we'd hear any solid updates from Paramount+ or its cast. But thanks to Variety's explosive interview with star Ed Harris, who plays vet Everett on the Yellowstone spinoff, I was wrong.
“Prior to signing on for it, I was talked to quite a bit about what the season was, and what my character was going to do — and that I was one of the four main characters,” Harris said. “And that wasn’t really the case."
He continued: “I said, ‘I’m feeling underused and inconsequential,’ and they kind of went, ‘Oh'. I’m being told my character will have a little bit more to do [in Season 2]. I was just a little frustrated, to tell you the truth.”
@varietymagazineEd Harris says he felt “misled” about his “inconsequential” role on “Dutton Ranch,” and that halfway through filming Season 1, he was telling his team to “get me the f--- out of here.” “Prior to signing on for it, I was talked to quite a bit about what the season was, and what my character was going to do — and that I was one of the four main characters,” Harris said. “And that wasn’t really the case... I said, ‘I’m feeling underused and inconsequential,’ and they kind of went, ‘Oh.'” Harris explained that when he actually watched “Dutton Ranch,” he thought it was “pretty good,” and he felt his character was “relatively important to the story.” However, during filming, “it didn’t feel that way.” “I’m being told my character will have a little bit more to do [in Season 2],” he says. “I was just a little frustrated, to tell you the truth.”
♬ original sound - VarietyAccording to Variety, Harris explained that when he actually watched Dutton Ranch, he thought it was “pretty good,” and felt his character was “relatively important to the story.” However, during filming, “it didn’t feel that way.”
These potentially controversial comments are the ones making headlines, but for me — a self-proclaimed hardcore fan of the show — they aren't the most interesting takeaway from Harris' interview.
Not only are there heavy hints about when we're likely to see new episodes released, but the certainty of Harris' belief in season 2 indicates that a new showrunner has been found.
Dutton Ranch season 2 episodes will likely arrive in late 2027 as Harris confirms February 2027 filming scheduleDo a little bit of social media digging and you will find that there's more to the interview with Harris than the clip Variety has chosen to run with. Journalist Marc Malkin has posted the full footage to his Instagram, where Harris confirms that Dutton Ranch season 2 is due to begin filming in 2027.
I'll be honest with you: this is a lot later than I was expecting. However, it does confirm that we'll be seeing episodes in late 2027 (or slightly later, depending on if there are any other production hitches).
(Image credit: Paramount+)Now let's examine what Harris allegedly knows about his season 2 character arc. For plans to already be so firmed up, this must mean that a new showrunner has been appointed to take over from Chad Feehan, who exited the show just weeks before the season 1 premiere.
This could easily have been a remark made by producers just to keep Harris happy enough to carry out his two-season contract with Dutton Ranch. But the fact that neither Paramount, nor Taylor Sheridan or 101 Studios chose not to comment on Harris' interview makes me feel hopeful that Sheridan has quietly resumed his position as showrunner.
Call it delusion if nothing else, as this is what I've always wanted to happen with the Yellowstone spinoff. But it's a smart move — with season 1 performing so well for Paramount+, everything needs to be perfect to keep up momentum. Annoyingly, it's likely that the showrunner won't be announced until season 2 begins production.
- Live heart rate data will be free for Garmin Cirqa users
- Early testers noticed it had been put behind the Connect+ subscription
- The new tracker costs $199.99 / £179.99 / AU$299.99
We've already put the newly unveiled Garmin Cirqa through an extensive hands-on testing session, and came away very impressed. However, there were complaints from those who had early access to the device that live heart rate data was locked behind a paywall.
Now Garmin is taking that negative feedback on board: as reported by seasoned tech reporter Ray Maker (via Android Police), live heart rate data will be available to every Cirqa user "in the coming days", with or without a Garmin Connect+ subscription.
The subscription, which applies across all of Garmin's wearables, has been the subject of much debate since it launched last year. For $6.99 / £6.99 / AU$12 per month or $69.99 / £69.99 / AU$120 a year, it gives you access to more metrics and more insights about the fitness data you're amassing.
Live heart rate readings aren't usually locked behind Connect+, so it's strange that Garmin initially made this the case with the Cirqa. Whatever the reasoning or confusion, the anomaly is now being dealt with, which is good news.
The rise of subscriptionsGood news update! Garmin will be making a change to Garmin Connect Mobile in the coming days, so you'll now be able to see Live HR from Cirqa during a workout (previously, you could only see workout Average HR unless you had Garmin Connect+). See...feedback works. Sometimes. :) https://t.co/q5qL8T4YhZJuly 22, 2026
If you're new to the Garmin Cirqa (and it was only announced a few days ago), it takes on the likes of the Whoop wearables and the Fitbit Air by giving you a capable, lightweight wrist tracker without the distraction (and battery drain) of a display.
Both the Cirqa and the Fitbit Air offer basic tracking features and functionality for free, with a pile of extras available if you sign up for a subscription. With Whoop bands, like the Whoop MG, a subscription is compulsory, otherwise it's pretty much useless — plans start at $199 / £169 / AU$299 per year.
As we've written about before, it's a sign of the times that so many tech devices, from smartwatches to security cameras, now come with monthly subscriptions attached — usually stealing away the best features for the device in question.
If you're tempted by a Garmin Cirqa and its display-free design, it's available for $199.99 / £179.99 / AU$299.99 direct from Garmin, with availability from tomorrow, July 24 — and you will be able to record real time heart rate data, via the accompanying Garmin app.
- Varonis Threat Labs uncovered Dolphin X, a powerful RAT with 329 features across 10 categories
- Its standout “AI Profiler” ranks victims by usage and sends summaries to attackers daily
- Malware is sold on the dark web via subscription tiers, starting at $80 per month
What if malware could talk to its operator and tell it which of the infected victims is worth paying attention to, and which not? A few years ago, this might have been science fiction but today, thanks to breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence (AI), not only is it possible, it’s also already available on the black market.
Security researchers Varonis Threat Labs recently disclosed finding a rather revolutionary remote access trojan (RAT) called Dolphin X.
Even without advanced AI capabilities, the RAT is quite potent, acting as an infostealer, a Hidden Virtual Network Computing (HVNC), a DDoS botnet, or a loader. Just its infostealer capabilities are nothing short of impressive - it can target more than 300 applications to steal browser passwords, enterprise credentials, cryptocurrency wallet data, DevOps secrets, and different sensitive files, and it comes with 329 features split into 10 categories.
AI ProfilerHowever, the AI capability is the one that stunned the researchers. Called “AI Profiler”, the feature ranks victims by app usage, browsing history, and more, sending a daily summary to the attackers.
The malware is now being offered on the dark web, where other criminals can subscribe to one of three tiers. The basic tier costs $80 per month, while the top tier is around $230 per month. Lifetime subscription costs $1,140 for basic access, and goes up to $3,420 for the top tier.
"Dolphin X’s collection scope reaches well beyond browser passwords to SSH keys, cloud tokens, and DevOps credentials," Varonis said in its write-up. "On the wrong machine, a single infection could expose access to an entire production environment."
"Its use of AI is also interesting because it shows us how AI is being integrated into more cybercrime tooling."
- Star Wars Zero Company will take 30-40 hours to beat the main campaign
- The game won't feature New Game Plus mode, romance systems, or branching story paths
- Post-launch content is also unconfirmed at this time
Bit Reactor has confirmed that Star Wars Zero Company will take up to 40 hours to finish, and it won't have a New Game Plus mode.
The single-player turn-based tactics game is one of my most anticipated titles of the year, and ahead of its launch next month, the studio has conducted a community Q&A to answer a long series of questions.
One of the first questions asked how long the campaign will be, and lead producer Caydence Funk has confirmed that "Depending on your difficulty level and experience with the strategy genre," it's estimated that it can take between 30 and 40 hours for the average player to beat.
It's also confirmed that the story will be linear with no romance systems or branching paths.
"While we are excited about pushing the genre forward with a more cinematic approach, this is still a turn-based tactics game at its heart where adept skill and strategy are needed to overcome tense combat challenges," Bit Reactor said. "That said, there are story moments that can alter based on who you have in your squad, but the overall story is a linear one from beginning to end."
Personally, 40 hours is the ideal length, and a linear story means I can experience everything the story without having to worry about missing out on additional storylines.
"As far as exploration goes, yes, you’ll have the ability to explore a section of some planets prior to engaging in turn-based combat on them," the studio added.
"This is a minor facet of the game that we feel adds a unique, immersive quality to Star Wars Zero Company. These small segments are a chance for you, as Hawks, to conduct the espionage that Zero Company excels at, and are main-story-only segments that can affect the subsequent combat by granting Intel and Advantage Points."
Unfortunately, the game won't launch with New Game Plus mode, so new playthroughs will have to be completely fresh, "but players will unlock certain customization options on subsequent playthroughs" through progress.
Zero Company is set during one of my favorite Star Wars eras, the Clone Wars, so I'm very excited to experience a new story during this time period.
We can expect battles across the galaxy with the Separatist Alliance, a team consisting of a Clone Trooper, a Mandalorian, a Jedi Padawan, an Umbaran sniper, and more, as well as the appearance of Anakin Skywalker.
Customization will also play a big role in the game, and while players can't have an entire team of Clone Troopers, Bit Reactor confirmed that you'll have access to Clone armor cosmetics with the ability to customize your team's armor from the start. Outfits don't impact gameplay, but Clone Trooper helmets will provide a voice modulation effect, which sounds neat!
Even cooler, The Clone Wars TV series voice actor Dee Bradley Baker will provide his iconic voice to the character Trick and additional Clone Troopers, but the full cast has yet to be announced.
As for additional content, good news, there are no plans for microtransactions to be added to the game; however, the "Arc Trooper" Armor Set is only part of the "Grand Army of the Republic" Cosmetic Pack for the Deluxe Edition, but players will still have access to other cosmetic options in the base game.
The game also won't have mod support, and "right now" post-launch content isn't confirmed because Bit Reactor is "focused on making the best game we can at launch."
Star Wars Zero Company launches on August 27 for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Series S.
Engineering discipline in software development has been under the spotlight since AI started being used by devs to generate code, with many teams worried it’s causing unnecessary risk. Headlines have been full of cautionary tales about bugs created by hastily shipped code or senior executives taking vibe coding into their own hands.
Nevertheless, teams are finding ways to build trust in AI-generated code. Google’s 2025 DORA survey concluded that AI has an amplifying effect on organizations' processes - quality processes enhanced by AI lead to higher quality outputs, and more of them.
Our own research shows that most teams aren’t being haphazard with safeguards or accepting AI outputs at face value. Most teams are being more rigorous and giving their outputs the same scrutiny as the work of a teammate. That tells us a lot about how the best-performing teams are learning how to work with AI.
Seventy-six percent of enterprise teams are reviewing AI-generated work at least as rigorously as human-written work. Teams using AI to accelerate their work are seeing results from using proven engineering practices to ensure code is reviewed and tested sufficiently.
Rather than being inherently unstable, the rise of AI-generated code has emphasized that guardrails are the bedrock of consistently reliable software.
Treat AI as a virtual teammateTeams treating AI-generated code as if it was produced by a human tells us something about how mature teams are using AI. The engineers using AI most effectively treat it as a virtual teammate. They stay in charge of the decisions and they use AI to accelerate the execution.
To make AI adoption an iterative process that improves over time, starting with low-stakes, repeatable tasks and applying stringent checks to outputs gives the tech a chance to work properly without expecting immediate results.
As MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory reported, AI coding’s widespread adoption doesn’t mean it can handle all aspects of large-scale software engineering by itself. Releasing to production is higher stakes than writing code, for example. Scrutiny from real humans is vital to prevent errors and hallucinations from impacting the business.
At this early stage of AI being used in workflows, it’s positive that 43% of teams are treating AI code like human-written code, with 33% applying even stricter checks. Even the best developers on a team aren’t above the processes and guardrails that guarantee reliable software deployment at speed. AI should be approached in the same way.
Trust in AI follows the risk curveAs with any new technology, introducing AI to the software lifecycle is a learning process. Our data shows trust in AI varies greatly depending on the stage of the software lifecycle, indicating that teams are building confidence with appropriate caution.
A pragmatic approach is being taken at the best-performing enterprises. Thought leaders from Gartner, Forrester and Google’s DORA team all highlight that organizations seeing success from AI-assisted development are strengthening their engineering controls and building up success over time.
This tallies with where AI is trusted to perform. The vast majority (82%) now use AI during the build stage, dropping to 58% at release where production risk is highest. Using AI primarily for earlier stages of software development is a rational step to make sure failures don’t impact the wider business.
This doesn’t betray a lack of confidence in the technology. Almost half (46%) of teams are confident in the performance of AI-generated code, indicating that its more cautious use in production is a measured business decision rather than skepticism.
Outputs are much easier to review and refine before the release stage. With many businesses still lacking full observability, teams often only hear about mistakes in live code once users notify them. Despite claims that software development could eventually be fully automated, teams are showing a clear awareness of where human oversight is essential.
Rather than making blanket judgments about AI’s capabilities, they are taking a more nuanced view, which bodes well for the future of AI-assisted software delivery.
Combine speed with discipline to winThere is continuity in how mature teams are making sure AI-generated code is fit for purpose, but it’s still having a seismic impact on the role of software engineers. When I speak with developers, their feedback is unanimous: the time AI saves is invaluable for focusing on neglected parts of their process.
AI moves the cognitive load from writing code and building configuration to reviewing and directing it. With time freed up, teams have more scope to prioritize observability, test coverage or disaster recovery scenarios - crucial elements of software hygiene that too often get overlooked.
AI adoption is increasing documentation quality according to the DORA report, suggesting that many teams are taking the opportunity to improve the broader engineering practices that support reliable software delivery.
As it takes on more of the mechanical aspects of software development, engineers become increasingly responsible for the work that matters most: validating outputs, understanding risk, and ensuring outputs align with business objectives. If someone asks “why did we build it this way?” it’s a problem if no one can answer the question without asking AI. Humans must be in the loop.
The organizations that benefit most from AI will not be those with more automation, they will be the ones that combine AI-driven speed with engineering discipline and a strict adherence to repeatable processes.
AI adoption is a DevOps challengeThe debate around AI-generated code often focuses on whether the technology can be trusted in DevOps. In most cases, teams have been building this trust iteratively without throwing away human judgment to get the best results.
As AI capabilities continue to improve, the gap between high-performing teams and everyone else is unlikely to be determined by access to the latest model.
The engineers and teams that will thrive are the ones who pair AI’s capabilities with their own judgement.
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