(GeekWire File Photo / Nat Levy) In a surprise reveal, Microsoft said Thursday it plans to launch a mobile gaming store later this year. The news came out during an on-stage interview with Xbox president Sarah Bond at a Bloomberg event. According to Bond, the as-yet-unnamed store will launch in July on web browsers, rather than a designated app, with Microsoft’s recently-acquired Candy Crush Saga serving as a day-one tentpole franchise. Microsoft’s entry into the mobile gaming market — the most lucrative arm of the games industry — has been anticipated, particularly since the company ..read more

(Uber Photo) New legislation that would lower recently implemented minimum wage standards for Uber Eats and DoorDash delivery drivers in Seattle took another step forward on Thursday. The Seattle City Council’s governance, accountability, and economic development committee approved the new ordinance, which will now move to a full council vote on May 28. Since the existing minimum pay law went into effect in January, tech giants including Uber and DoorDash responded by adding new fees for consumers, which caused demand to drop considerably. They also amped up lobbying efforts at City ..read more

Cynthia Williams. (LinkedIn Photo) Cynthia Williams, a video game industry vet who recently departed Wizards of the Coast, was named CEO of Everett, Wash.-based pop culture collectibles maker Funko. Williams was previously president of Wizards, the Hasbro-owned game company behind Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons. She left the company last month. During her two-year stint, Williams oversaw a period in which Wizards’ flagship games were both extraordinarily successful and frequently controversial. Williams also worked in leadership roles with Microsoft’s Xbox team and Ama ..read more

A vision-impaired fan uses a tactile/haptics device from Seattle startup OneCourt to follow the action via touch during a Portland Trail Blazers game in April. (Trail Blazers Photo / Stephanie Castillo) Athletes might possess the right touch to execute a perfect pass or shot. A Seattle startup’s touch is bringing blind or low-vision sports fans closer to the games they love with a device that lets them “feel” what’s happening on the field or court. OneCourt‘s technology and hardware translates gameplay data into spatial haptics. The company’s tabletop device syncs to the television or radio br ..read more

Bellevue, Wash.-based wireless giant T-Mobile is closing in on a deal to buy a part of U.S. Cellular, one of the last major regional wireless carriers, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal on Thursday. T-Mobile and Verizon are in talks to buy parts of U.S. Cellular in deals that would include operations and wireless spectrum licenses. U.S. Cellular, the nation’s fifth largest carrier, last year said it was exploring strategic alternatives for its wireless operations. A deal with T-Mobile could be reached as soon as this month, the Journal reported. T-Mobile mentioned U.S. Cellul ..read more

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, left, and Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown, right, at the Technology Alliance State of Technology annual luncheon in Seattle on Friday, May 3, 2024. (GeekWire Photo / Taylor Soper) Seattle and Spokane, Wash., may be on opposite ends of the state, with tech industries at very different stages of their evolution, but there’s still plenty for the state’s two largest cities to learn by comparing notes. Speaking at a Technology Alliance event on Friday, May 3, Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown addressed the city’s attempts to maintain affordability and quality of life in the face of its ..read more

Microsoft President Brad Smith during an event with President Biden on Wednesday in Wisconsin. (Screen grab via @POTUS) Microsoft plans to invest $3.3 billion in an artificial intelligence-related initiative in Wisconsin, giving a boost to President Joe Biden’s job-creation efforts in the key election battleground state. The investment, according to a Microsoft announcement on Wednesday, will go toward expanding the tech giant’s cloud computing and AI infrastructure capacity, with the development of a state-of-the-art data center campus in Mount Pleasant, Wisc. Microsoft also plans to cre ..read more

From left: Lexion founders Emad Elwany, Gaurav Oberoi and James Baird when the company launched in 2019. (Lexion Photo) Six years later, the floor inside a conference room at the AI2 Incubator in Seattle still shows signs of Gaurav Oberoi’s dedication to solving customer problems. This is where the Lexion CEO paced in circles on call after call, gathering the input that he and his colleagues needed to a build a tech startup that uses artificial intelligence to scour and glean insights from complicated legal documents. “I don’t know if there’s a more perfect example of quite literally the physi ..read more

The 2023 GeekWire Awards at Showbox SoDo in Seattle. (GeekWire File Photo / Kevin Lisota) The GeekWire Awards are back, and we’re looking forward to partying with Seattle’s tech community Thursday at Showbox SoDo. If you’re planning on attending the special event, read the FAQ below for key information such as where to park, what to wear, who’s up for awards and what else to expect when we gather to celebrate the top innovators, entrepreneurs, scientists and educators in the Pacific Northwest. Special thanks to Astound Business Solutions, the presenting sponsor of the 2024 GeekWire Awards ..read more

Predict.law co-founders, from left: CEO Pat Wilburn, CPO Stan Zaporozhets, and CTO Dave Contreras. (Photos courtesy of Predict.law) Predict.law, a stealthy new Seattle-area legal-tech startup, is using artificial intelligence to help attorneys and their law firms better predict the outcome of legal cases. Applying AI and machine learning training on precedent case history and the fact patterns associated with those cases, Predict.law uses technology to replace the current process of manually searching for relevant prior cases. The startup’s initial target market is contingency-based civil case ..read more