Discord has just announced that all voice and video calls that take place on its platform will now enjoy end-to-end encryption.

You may be forgiven for thinking the platform already had this in place, but that's not the case. The platform began 'experimenting' with end-to-end encryption back in 2023, but has only just made it the standard for almost every call.

I say 'almost' because the major exception is voice and video calls taking place on a server's stage channel. Otherwise, for standard server channels, the switch is automatic with no need to opt in. The company says that right now, "every voice and video call on Discord, whether in DMs, group DMs, voice channels, or Go Live streams, is end-to-end encrypted by default."

The vice president of technology at Discord, Mark Smith, dove into some depth about the multi-year process of implementing end-to-end call encryption. Long story short, 2024 saw the introduction of DAVE (no, not that one), Discord's very own encryption protocol. If you'd like to take a closer look at DAVE (still not that one), Discord has made it open-source via GitHub.

Smith explains, "We began migrating calls on desktop and mobile and started proving that E2EE could operate at Discord's scale without compromising the experience people expect from us."

Then in 2025, DAVE was extended to every remaining Discord platform, such as the browser-based app and console-based apps. Smith writes, "At the beginning of March 2026, we completed that migration."

That's the briefest of overviews, but already hints at what a social beast Discord has become, and just how many moving parts this migration had to account for. "The thing that makes Discord's voice and video infrastructure unusual isn't just scale — it's diversity," Mark Smith writes, "A single Discord call can have someone on a laptop, someone on their phone, someone on a PlayStation, someone on an Xbox, and someone in a web browser, all in the same conversation at the same time."

He goes on to add, "Every one of those participants expects Discord’s high-quality, low-latency communications, regardless of what device they're on. Building an E2EE protocol that works seamlessly across all of those surfaces simultaneously is, to my knowledge, unlike anything else that's been shipped. DAVE is likely one of the internet’s most platform-diverse E2EE voice and video implementations."

It's definitely an impressive project that represents a recommitment to user privacy. You may remember that the embattled social platform experienced a lot of pushback over proposed age verification measures, particularly after the potential exposure of 70,000 users' personal data in a data breach last year.

Though the platform has delayed rolling out age checks globally in light of criticism, the platform has already deployed age verification in the UK in accordance with local law there (though critics argue the platform did not need to comply in advance). As a long-time user in the UK, I've managed to avoid these latest checks. All the same, here's hoping that the user privacy win of end-to-end encryption isn't soon undone by poorly implemented age checks in the near future.

Valve stuck its oar in the tides of history yesterday, performing a spring clean of Steam's user-tagging system that added 17 new tags and removed 28 old ones. Most importantly, of course, it finally settled the debate as to what the hell we all call the "Vampire Survivors-like" genre, but it also notably excised the "RPGMaker" tag, which players have long stuck on games made using RPG Maker dev tools or that look like they were made using those tools.

And, strangely enough, RPG Maker devs seem pretty happy about it.

Not everyone is psyched, of course—"why would you remove rpgmaker are you fucking insane" lamented one dev on Bluesky in the wake of Steam's update—but visit hubs of RPG Maker development and you'll mostly find devs feeling very sanguine about the whole thing.

"To be honest I think [the RPGMaker tag] was probably doing more harm than good," wrote one RPG Maker MZ dev on Reddit. "Those who avoid RPG Maker games due to some preconception, possibly based on shovelware or RPG Maker 'slop', may then find one that they indeed like if they can't exclude it from tags."

Exclusion is the other side of the coin with Steam's tag system. While you can use tags to narrow games down—to hunt for certain kinds of games that fill whatever niche a particular tag denotes—you can also use them to mark exclusions. Never want to see a sports game? Just nix the tag. Tired of seeing exotic fetish content in Steam's most popular upcoming list? Blacklist the "Sexual content" tag. Though joke's on you in that instance: everything is someone's exotic fetish.

Plenty of players across the years have applied just this kind of exclusion to the RPGMaker tag. It's not unreasonable: a lot of dreadful shovelware gets produced and sold using those tools. But the drawback is that all the genuinely cool and exciting work gets hidden from users too, including a lot of stuff that isn't even made with RPG Maker—these tags are applied based on vibes, not on concrete analysis.

So although users who genuinely used the RPGMaker tag to find cool games made using those tools are rather upset, I get the impression devs making these games consider it a worthwhile tradeoff to resurface the stuff they make. "Happy to see the tag removed," writes another Reddit user, "as I'm sure due to the high amount of low effort crap, it did the good games more harm than good."

Even the official RPG Maker forums seem to lean positive: "I think it's good," writes one user. "I honestly felt that tag helped, at least in some small part, creating the negative perception around RPG Maker during its heyday around the Steam Greenlight era."

But do pour one out for those players who can no longer easily find new RPG Maker games on Steam itself. "Steam really removed the rpgmaker tag because it was 'too broad' and then they add a fucking tag for capybaras," says one. "Fuck you steam."

A new Arc Raiders patch is taking aim at cheaters by implementing Denuvo's Anti-Cheat measures. But Embark Studios is already getting ahead of the backlash by promising folks it doesn't plan to use DRM and saying it's making sure the anti-cheat tech won't have a noticeable impact on performance.

Arc Raiders 1.29.0 patch notes are expansive and detail everything from a new trader to new weapons and balance tweaks. Buried at the bottom of the list is a note on the developer's ongoing battle against bad apples.

"We want to continue improving our anti-cheat solutions and more accurately detect foul play across the Rust Belt," the dev writes. "Following a positive rollout in The Finals, Denuvo Anti-Cheat will also come to ARC Raiders starting May 19th, initially to a limited player pool, with plans to expand after close monitoring."

Embark didn't specify exactly how it's lumping players together, but I'm guessing the anti-cheat tech will hit more aggressive players or accounts that have been reported first, before eventually spreading to everyone.

Even the mere mention of Denuvo is enough to scare droves of PC players, since the name is associated with a controversial, anti-piracy DRM service that often kneecaps performance, prompting the company to address the issue. Don't worry about it too much here, though.

"We will not be using Denuvo's Digital Rights Management (DRM) service, and are working to ensure minimal impact on performance," Embark adds. "With Denuvo Anti-Cheat and Anybrain, we are working to strengthen ARC Raiders' systems even further. Keep sending us reports of any information that you believe might help us do so, it's highly appreciated."

Cheating in Arc Raiders has been a recurring problem for months, and Embark has been testing various systems to detect and punish cheaters since at least January of this year. Here's hoping these newest changes can finally squash the extraction shooter's longest-running issue.

As Arc Raiders devs work on "reactivating" the 16 million people who bought the shooter, Embark Studios is early in development on two new games

He has the power... to win over critics! Masters of the Universe is pulling in hugely positive reactions following its LA premiere, and being compared to the likes of Marvel's Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy.

Directed by Bumblebee helmer Travis Knight, the new live-action fantasy flick wonders what an episode of the '80s cartoon would've looked if one of Skeletor's schemes had actually worked. With that, it sees Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) living a humdrum human life on Earth, having been sent there by his mother when he was a young boy.

But Adam has never forgotten who he really is or where he hails from, and has spent the last few years searching for the Power Sword and a way to get back to Eternia. When he manages to find both, he's shocked to find his home has been taken over by evil warlord Skeletor (Jared Leto). After so many decades away, does he have what it takes to become the buff blonde hero he's destined to be and save his people?

On Twitter, The AU Review's Peter Gray praised Galitzine's comedic timing, the film's "knowingly cartoonish, '80s vibes", and Leto's "campy" voicework as Skeletor.

Elsewhere, Collider's Perri Nemiroff said she "was totally swept away by this super vibrant, weird and gleeful romp." Nemiroff went on to call it "downright ridiculous, but ridiculous works when the cast and crew wholly get the kind of movie they're making and are enthusiastic about going all out to bring it to life."

"One of the biggest surprises of 2026," she added.

"MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE is like a sister film to the first Thor," wrote DiscussingFilm's Andrew J. Salazar. "Struggles to find its footing in the first half, but once it locks on its themes of fragile masculinity and ego, it makes way for an incredibly fun time that's also visually stimulating. Nicholas Galitzine is great!"

"Masters of the Universe being one of the best movies I've seen all year was not on my bingo card but here we are," tweeted Offscreen Central's Kenzie Vanunu. "Genuinely an epic good time. I love swords, I guess."

Check out some other reactions below...

It seems worth noting, though, that not everyone dug what Knight has done with the franchise, with Gizmodo's Germain Lussier arguing that only the first 20 minutes of the movie were enjoyable. "As for the rest? It's a mess. Serious played for laughs, laughs played for emotion, it works, it doesn't, it really tries but ends up being too awkward. Great end credits scenes though."

Masters of the Universe releases on June 5. While we wait, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming movies heading our way.