Venusaur with the Mightiest Mark returns to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet 7-star raids

Venusaur is making a powerful comeback in Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet, returning to 7-star Tera Raid Battles with the Mightiest Mark. The event runs from January 9, 2026, at 00:00 UTC to January 15, 2026, at 23:59 UTC, marking the start of a new series of raids featuring fully evolved first partner Pokémon from different regions.

This time, Venusaur appears as a Ground–Tera Type and can be encountered at black Tera Raid crystals across Paldea. As with previous Mightiest Mark raids, the challenge is designed for coordinated multiplayer teams, making strategy and preparation essential to defeat the formidable Seed Pokémon.

To access the event, players must download the latest Poké Portal News and either complete the postgame content or join a raid hosted by a qualified Trainer. Venusaur can only be caught once per save file, but players who have already captured it can still participate to earn valuable rewards, including Exp. Candy, sellable treasures, stat-boosting items, and Ground Tera Shards.

The raid is available exclusively on Nintendo Switch.

PUBG: Blindspot Early Access Release Date Revealed

PUBG Studios has officially announced the Early Access release date for its upcoming tactical shooter, PUBG: Blindspot. In a statement released on Thursday, the studio confirmed that PUBG: Blindspot will enter Early Access on February 5. The title will be available exclusively on PC via Steam and will adopt a free-to-play model.

Described by the developers as a “5v5 team-based top-down tactical shooter,” PUBG: Blindspot aims to deliver fast-paced, strategy-focused combat marked by intense firefights and realistic gunplay. By combining the adrenaline of high-intensity shooters with the strategic depth of a top-down perspective, the game seeks to offer a level of realism and tension typically associated with first-person shooters.

The Early Access launch will feature a variety of enhancements over recent demos, including improved UI and visual fidelity, more responsive controls, and refined balance adjustments designed to deepen the overall tactical experience.

Following release, PUBG Studios plans to roll out monthly updates, guided by both internal development goals and player feedback. The studio emphasized that community input will be actively incorporated throughout the Early Access phase.

At present, no timeline has been provided regarding how long the game is expected to remain in Early Access.

Accenture to acquire Faculty to deepen enterprise AI engineering and safety capabilities

Accenture is set to acquire UK based AI company Faculty as it looks to strengthen large scale, production ready artificial intelligence deployments for enterprise customers. The move reflects rising demand for AI systems that are reliable, secure, and capable of operating at scale beyond experimentation.

Faculty focuses on building and deploying AI for complex, high impact environments, with deep expertise in machine learning engineering, decision intelligence, and AI safety. The company has worked on model development, evaluation, and deployment for mission critical use cases, and has collaborated with AI labs such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Faculty has also contributed to assessing general purpose AI models through its work with the UK AI Security Institute.

A key technical asset in the acquisition is Faculty’s Frontier platform, a decision intelligence system designed to operationalise AI across sectors such as life sciences, logistics, and public services. Accenture plans to integrate Frontier into its broader AI portfolio alongside its cloud, data, and automation capabilities.

Following the acquisition, more than 400 AI engineers, data scientists, and researchers from Faculty will join Accenture. This will expand Accenture’s ability to deliver end to end AI systems covering model design, infrastructure, deployment, monitoring, and governance. The deal highlights Accenture’s emphasis on the technical foundations required to run AI safely and effectively in production environments.