Tech’s biggest losers of 2025

Honestly, compiling the biggest losers for Engadget is more fun than talking up the winners. While we reviewed nothing as atrocious as those ill-fated AI assistant gadgets from 2024, AI companies and services straddled both the winner and loser podiums.

The losers might be you, the American consumer. (Sorry.) In the US, anyone wanting a drone will have to find something that isn’t made by DJI. The company has been targeted by regulators since 2017 over concerns its products could spy on sensitive US infrastructure on behalf of China.

The problem is DJI has such a high market share (over 75 percent) that its absence will effectively upend the industry. Oh, and its drones are consistently the best too. The US government hasn’t yet attempted to work with DJI to assess whether its products pose a risk. DJI recently made a final plea for a security review, sending letters to five US agencies that could assess its products. If that fails, US drone options will shrink massively.

In the same 12 months, EV sales across the globe are up around 25 percent this year. Germany set a record in the first half of 2025, with electric cars accounting for nearly one in five new registrations. In China, EV sales are growing so fast (over 50 percent market share) that the country is flooding the global market with gas-powered cars it can’t sell at home. However — remember this is about losers — in the US, the Trump administration ended the EV tax credit. And shock! Sales of EVs in the US slumped, with some automakers, such as Ford, seeing a 60 percent year-over-year decline.

As Sam Rutherford puts it, this policy change puts more roadblocks (his inadvertent pun, not mine) in the way of making cheaper battery-powered cars. It also affects EV investment and could mean US automakers fall even further behind their rivals elsewhere.

We also point and shake our heads at Xbox, Grok and TV streaming. Check it all out right here.

— Mat Smith

The other big stories (and deals) this morning

News, trailers and award winners. Most of which are Clair Obscur.

If you missed The Game Awards 2025, you missed a historic sweep by Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The Belle Epoque saga, which was expected to win several categories, even bagged Game of the Year and eventually picked up more wins than any title in the show’s 12-year history.

Naturally, there were trailers and game reveals too, which were pleasantly notable. We got a first look at the Control sequel, Resonant, Star Wars: Fate of The Old Republic is coming, headed by Mass Effect veterans, while Larian Studios is returning to the Divinity series following the success of Baldur’s Gate 3. Heck, if you want a good chance of winning at The Game Awards, hire Jennifer English to voice one of your main characters — she was in both BG3 and Clair Obscur.

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Slop Wars, Toy Sloppy and more!

Disney announced a three-year licensing agreement with OpenAI to bring more than 200 of its characters, including those from Star Wars and Pixar, to the Sora app and ChatGPT. With the deal in place, OpenAI users will be able to prompt ChatGPT to generate images that tap into Disney’s intellectual property, with costumes, props, vehicles and environments covered. Additionally, Disney will invest $1 billion in OpenAI, with the option to purchase additional equity down the road.

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Learn about tennis from Serena Williams or music from John Legend.

If you’re struggling to find a good present for the holidays, MasterClass has discounted its subscriptions by up to 40 percent. I secured a similar deal for myself and was pleasantly surprised by the solid interface and the number of courses. I also forgot to update my subscription, whoops. Maybe this offer will get me back on board.

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It’s already getting the details wrong on its own shows.

Amazon’s plan to offer AI-generated recaps of Prime Video shows isn’t off to a great start. The company’s recap of the first season of Fallout has multiple errors. First, the AI-generated recap incorrectly identifies the era of the show’s Los Angeles-set flashbacks as being the 1950s — they’re actually 2077. Perhaps more egregiously for a recap, it misunderstands the ending of the first season, which sets up season two’s partnership between vault dweller Lucy and The Ghoul.

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