Tech’s biggest losers of 2025

Honestly, compiling the biggest losers for Engadget is more fun than talking about the winners. While we haven’t looked at anything as atrocious as these unfortunate AI assistive gadgets of 2024, AI companies and services have found themselves straddling the winners’ and losers’ podiums.

The losers could be you, the American consumer. (Sorry.) In the United States, anyone who wants a drone will have to find something not made by DJI. The company has been targeted by regulators since 2017 because its products could spy on sensitive US infrastructure on behalf of China.

The problem is that DJI has such a high market share (over 75%) that its absence will effectively shake up the industry. Oh, and his drones are always the best too. The US government has not yet attempted to work with DJI to assess whether its products pose a risk. DJI recently made a final plea for a safety review, sending letters to five U.S. agencies that could evaluate its products. If this fails, America’s drone options will diminish significantly.

During the same 12-month period, sales of electric vehicles across the world increased by around 25% this year. Germany set a record in the first half of 2025, with almost one in five new electric car registrations. In China, sales of electric vehicles are growing so quickly (more than 50% market share) that the country is flooding the global market with gasoline-powered cars it can’t sell at home. However – remember, these are losers – in the United States, the Trump administration ended the tax credit for electric vehicles. And shock! Sales of electric vehicles in the United States have plummeted, with some automakers, like Ford, seeing a 60% year-over-year decline.

As Sam Rutherford says, this policy change creates more barriers (his inadvertent pun, not mine) to making cheaper battery-powered cars. It also affects investments in electric vehicles and could mean U.S. automakers fall further behind competitors elsewhere.

We also point fingers and shake our heads at Xbox, Grok, and TV streaming. Find out all about it here.

—Mat Smith

The other big stories (and deals) this morning

News, trailers and winners. Most of which are Chiaroscuro.

If you missed The Game Awards 2025, you missed a historic sweep by Sandfall Interactive. Chiaroscuro: Expedition 33. The Belle Epoque Saga, which was expected to win several categories, even won Game of the Year and ultimately had more victories than any title in the series’ 12-year history.

Naturally, there were also game trailers and reveals, which were pleasantly notable. We had a first glimpse of the Control following, Resonant, Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic is coming, led by Mass Effect veterans, as Larian Studios returns to the Divinity series after the success of Baldur’s Gate 3. Hell, 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 Chiaroscuro.

Keep reading.

Slop Wars, Toy Sloppy and more!

Disney announced a three-year licensing agreement with OpenAI to integrate more than 200 of its characters, including those from Star Wars and Pixar, into the Sora app and ChatGPT. Once the agreement is in place, OpenAI users will be able to invite ChatGPT to generate images that leverage Disney intellectual property, with costumes, props, vehicles and environments covered. Additionally, Disney will invest $1 billion in OpenAI, with the option to purchase additional capital later.

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

If you’re having trouble finding a good gift for the holidays, MasterClass has discounted its subscriptions by up to 40%. I got a similar deal for myself and was pleasantly surprised by the solid interface and number of courses. I also forgot to update my subscription, oops. Maybe this offer will get me back on board.

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He already gets the details of his own shows wrong.

Amazon’s plan to offer AI-generated recaps of Prime Video shows isn’t a good start. The Society recap of season one To fall has several errors. First, the AI-generated recap incorrectly identifies the time of the show’s flashbacks in Los Angeles as the 1950s — it’s actually 2077. Perhaps most egregiously for a recap, it misunderstands the first season’s ending, which establishes the season two partnership between Vault-dweller Lucy and The Ghoul.

Keep reading.