Gaming Roundtable
The crew kicks things off with the Gaming Roundtable. Matt discusses his time playing Dead Space and his ongoing home lab project setting up AdGuard on a Raspberry Pi.
Slay the Spire 2 Early Access
We dive into the massively successful Early Access launch of Slay the Spire 2:
- Released on March 5, 2026, the highly anticipated sequel from Mega Crit Games hit the ground running for $24.99.
- The game boasts an overwhelmingly positive 97% rating across over 21,000 Steam reviews.
- It peaked at an incredible 574,638 concurrent players, nearly beating records set by Hollow Knight: Silksong.
- We discuss the introduction of new classes, up to 4-player co-op, and the developer's strategic shift to the Godot engine.
Pokémon GO's Data Harvest
We uncover the massive data collection behind Niantic's Pokémon GO:
- Niantic has compiled a "Visual Positioning System" using 30 billion images captured by players scanning their environments.
- This dataset is being licensed to partners like Coco Robotics, transforming Niantic from a game developer into a geospatial data broker.
- We explore the privacy implications of 50 million monthly active users unknowingly mapping the world to within centimeters of accuracy.
The Stryker Cyberattack
We analyze the devastating cyberattack on Stryker, a Fortune 500 medical technology giant:
- Iranian state-sponsored actors executed a massive wiper attack in retaliation for US airstrikes.
- The attackers compromised Stryker administrator accounts and weaponized Microsoft Intune—the company's own endpoint management platform—to issue remote wipe commands.
- We break down how the attackers managed to wipe over 200,000 servers and mobile devices, permanently deleting data and causing major disruptions to medical equipment.
Discord's ID Mandate, Revisited
We revisit the ongoing controversy surrounding Discord's new age verification policy:
- We discuss the community backlash to the mandatory "teen by default" lockdown that requires users to submit a government ID or facial scan to access adult features.
- We look at the privacy implications of this move, especially following Discord's recent data breach.
Watch & Listen
VOD: https://youtu.be/9nA_UD_7Ul8
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/TheDigitalAscent
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@TheDigitalAscent
Spotify: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/digitalascent/
Hosts & Credits
- Hosts: Brent, Matt, Brandon
- Technical Design / Production: Brent