gaming
Aéropostale Partners with MetaversePlus to Introduce AeroWorld, an Immersive Digital Brand Experience, with Incredible Tesla Giveaway*
AeroWorld Launches with AeroPax NFT Drop on March 23 Which Provides Full Access to AeroWorld and VIP Perks, Including a Chance to Win One of Ten Teslas
LOS ANGELES /PRNewswire/ — Fashion retailer, Aéropostale and Metaverse pioneer, MetaversePlus are joining forces to bring the fashion brand to the Metaverse. Through the partnership with Authentic Brands Group (Authentic), a global brand development, marketing, and entertainment platform, and the owner of Aéropostale, MetaversePlus will design, develop and expand the brand’s presence in Web3 through NFTs, world building, as well as offering members only perks and promotions.
The roadmap, which consists of four major phases, includes immersive shopping, socializing and gaming experiences. The first phase, set to launch on March 23, will focus on AeroPax. AeroPax is a collection of one-of-a-kind NFTs, which will build community and give members exclusive perks, including access to limited-edition apparel and VIP promotions. In celebration of the launch, Aéropostale is giving 10 lucky fans the chance to win a Tesla*. The 10 winners will be chosen at random, and no purchase is necessary. Be on the lookout on Aéropostale’s social channels for a sneak peak of the AeroPax. Additionally, all AeroPax purchases include a limited-edition hoodie (one per Aeropax, plus shipping/handling fees).
“We’re excited to build an immersive and interactive experience for Aéropostale fans and anyone who craves individuality,” said Noah Loul, Co-Founder of MetaversePlus. “AeroPax is unique in that we’re creating an experience free from real-world limitations and societal standards, where people can be their most authentic selves and join forces with like-minded individuals anywhere, using NFTs and virtual experiences.”
The initial collection of 30,000 AeroPax avatars will feature each AeroPax’s unique blend of traits, styles, personalities, and abilities—including ultra-rare perks, such as the chance to be featured on one of the brand’s popular digital channels. The AeroPax will become the user’s property, act as their interactive avatar, and double as their digital access pass to virtual worlds, including the forthcoming metaverse: AeroWorld.
Phase two of the roll out will offer fans a sneak peek into AeroWorld. It will allow users the opportunity to claim unique avatar characters, access virtual and IRL experiences including events and games, and the ability to collect in-game points, which can be redeemed for exclusive AeroPax merch and other VIP perks. Details of phases three and four will be revealed soon.
“We’re thrilled to partner with MetaversePlus to build a unique Aéropostale metaverse for the brand’s fans and global community,” said Naushaba Moeen, EVP, Lifestyle at Authentic. “Through this partnership, we aim to make Aéropostale a leading brand in the Web3 space and help shape the future of of community and customer engagement in the virtual world.”
Those interested in early access to Aéropostale’s new VIP brand experience AeroWorld can sign up at aeropostale.com/aeropax.
Press kit HERE
*Disclaimer: No purchase nec. 50 US/DC., 18+. Ends 4/30/23. For Rules/eligibility visit aeropostale.com/aeropax
About Authentic Brands Group
Authentic Brands Group (Authentic) is a global brand development, marketing and entertainment platform, which owns a portfolio of more than 40 iconic and world-renowned Lifestyle, Entertainment and Media brands. Headquartered in New York City, with offices around the world, Authentic connects strong brands with best-in-class partners and a global network of operators, distributors and retailers to build long-term value in the marketplace. Its brands generate approximately $24.4 billion in global annual retail sales and have an expansive retail footprint in more than 150 countries, including 10,400-plus freestanding stores and shop-in-shops and 356,000 points of sale.
Authentic is committed to transforming brands by delivering powerful storytelling, compelling content, innovative business models and immersive experiences. It creates and activates original marketing strategies to drive the success of its brands across all consumer touchpoints, platforms and emerging media. Authentic’s brand portfolio includes Marilyn Monroe®, Elvis Presley®, Muhammad Ali®, Shaquille O’Neal®, David Beckham®, Dr. J®, Greg Norman®, Neil Lane®, Thalia®, Sports Illustrated®, Reebok®, Eddie Bauer®, Spyder®, Volcom®, Airwalk®, Nautica®, Izod®, Brooks Brothers®, Barneys New York®, Judith Leiber®, Ted Baker®, Hervé Léger®, Frye®, Juicy Couture®, Vince Camuto®, Lucky Brand®, Aéropostale®, Forever 21®, Nine West®, Jones New York®, Tretorn®, Prince®, Van Heusen®, Arrow®, Hickey Freeman®, Hart Schaffner Marx® and Thomasville®.
For more information, visit authentic.com.
Follow Authentic on LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.
About Aéropostale
Aéropostale is a specialty retailer of casual apparel and accessories for men and women ages 18-22. Through the brand’s Oneness ethos, Aéropostale embraces acceptance, empathy and respect to promote a sense of unity among its loyal customers and in communities around the world. Aéropostale offers a selection of high-quality denim and fashion essentials at compelling values in an innovative and exciting store environment. With over 1,000 locations worldwide, Aéropostale currently operates stores in key territories around the world, including the United States, Mexico, Latin America, South America and the Middle East.
Shop the collection on aeropostale.com.
Follow @aeropostale on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
Follow @aeropaxnft on Instagram and Twitter.
About MetaversePlus
Based in Beverly Hills, CA, and founded in 2021, MetaversePlus is a Web3 development company built to empower global brands and organizations to enter the Metaverse today. Created to help leaders keep pace with technology, MetaversePlus acts as an extension of the team to handle all elements of development and execution, from building immersive experiences to project management to unlock new revenue streams. For more information, visit metaverseplus.com.
SOURCE Aéropostale; MetaversePlus
Tech
Professional gaming is brutal on the body – inside the growing field of treating esports injuries
Professional gaming can cause serious physical and mental strain, including wrist injuries, back pain, vision problems and sleep disturbances. As esports grows, specialists are developing new prevention and rehabilitation strategies to protect players.
Erica D. Henn, Temple University
Chinese esports player Jian “Uzi” Zi-hao was more than a star “League of Legends” player: He was so talented that his team structured its entire strategy around his abilities, funneling resources to him and another teammate, Shi “Ming” Sen-Ming, so the duo could lead the team to victory. Over the course of his career, he earned more than US$500,000 in tournament prize money.
And yet in 2020, Jian announced his retirement, his storied career cut short by chronic wrist and arm injuries.
He was 25 years old.
Video games have a reputation for keeping people glued to the couch. But for those who compete against the best players in the world, gaming can be surprisingly physically and mentally taxing.
The strain of ‘climbing the ladder’
The best esports players often have grinding schedules. They’re expected to regularly practice, participate in scrimmages and compete in official matches. Even at the recreational level, esports players cite the mental toll: playing for hours a day, every day, to hone their skills so they can “climb the ladder.”
A 2021 study of Portuguese esports players found that 37% experienced anxiety and depression, and 45% experienced sleep disturbances. The most common physical injuries in esports generally fall under eye problems and musculoskeletal issues.
Prolonged screen time leads to many types of vision problems in gamers, from the more common eye fatigue to a decreased ability to focus. Furthermore, the light emitted from screens appears to contribute to sleep disturbances by disrupting the release of melatonin, the hormone that helps regulate your sleep-wake cycle.
Many esport players – professional or otherwise – also battle hand and wrist pain, with repetitive button-smashing causing injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis and “gamer’s thumb,” which arises from overuse or irritation of the tendons around the thumb and wrist. Many of the overuse injuries seen among video game players are also familiar to assembly-line workers, whose jobs can involve similarly repetitive movements.
Then there are the back injuries. Players can remain seated for three or more hours without a break, and this prolonged sitting can take a toll on the lower back and spine.
The sedentary nature of esports has also led to a lesser-known – sometimes fatal – injury called deep vein thrombosis: a blood clot, often in the leg, that can become life-threatening if it travels to the lungs. In 2011, British gamer Chris Staniforth – who would play for as long as 12 hours at a time – died of the condition.
Preventative measures
As more esports injury research has been published, more treatment and prevention strategies have emerged.
Top esports teams now have physical therapists, performance psychologists, athletic trainers and even massage therapists on staff to optimize the performance and recovery of their players.
Teams often incorporate group exercise activities to both build rapport among players and reduce the risk of injuries. During competition, proper positioning of the spine and limbs has become an essential injury prevention strategy. For example, selecting a chair that encourages an upright posture can reduce pain and injury risk, especially when gamers couple ergonomics with an exercise program that centers on functional strength, mobility and stretching of the upper limbs.
Looking to the stage
When esports began gaining mainstream popularity in the 1990s and early 2000s, its proponents were eager to draw comparisons to traditional sports and athletic competition. The parallels helped establish esports’ legitimacy and gave non-gamers a familiar framework for understanding the competition.
As esports became a big business and a lucrative career path, players and teams hired a web of support staff – trainers, coaches and therapists – that mirrored the structure of professional sports. In this vein, a lot of esports injury research has pulled from the training methods of traditional sports.
However, as a scholar of exercise science, I think injury treatment and prevention strategies could be further improved by seeing esports competitors as more like musicians and dancers than football players and basketball players.
Performance optimization and injury research on professional performing artists has existed for centuries, and I think it represents a valuable, untapped resource. That’s because the physical and mental stresses experienced during musical performance have a lot in common with esports competition: long stretches of sitting; small, dexterous hand movements; and performing without the real-time input of a coach.
For example, biomechanics research has found similar patterns of forearm muscle fatigue among esports players and piano players. However, no studies to date have directly compared the two groups.
And what if the interest in joint hypermobility or hand size among performing artists were translated to esport populations? Could popular piano warm-up exercises be effective for esports athletes who use keyboards?
Even research on sports like car racing might offer valuable insights. As with gamers, many people overlook how physically demanding car racing can be – and yes, that includes sitting for extended periods of time.
Prevention and rehabilitation techniques continue to improve. Even Jian, the player who retired in 2020, returned to play for a few splits, or partial seasons, in 2022 and 2023.
In July 2023, “League of Legends” star Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok was relegated to the bench due to cubital tunnel syndrome, an injury that emerges from arm and hand overuse.
Through a treatment plan that included changing his gaming posture and intensive physical therapy, Lee was able to return to play just a month later. He went on to win three consecutive world championships, with his support team helping prevent recurrence of injury throughout each season.
Thanks to his rehabilitation, Lee’s fans will be able to follow his hunt for his fourth “League of Legends” World Championship, which kicks off in October 2026 in the United States.
Sienna Cinti assisted with the research and writing of this article.
Erica D. Henn, Assistant Professor of Kinesiology and Exercise Science, Temple University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
📰 Enjoying STM Daily News? Join the conversation!
💬 Leave a comment, share your thoughts, and subscribe to our newsletter for the latest stories, updates, and “News You Can Use This Moment!” delivered to your inbox.
Stay connected with STM Daily News!
health and wellness
Millions of mobile gamers prize stress relief over winning
Mobile Gamers Prize Stress: In the school’s car pickup line, five minutes before it starts moving. In the doctor’s office waiting room for an appointment that you’ve been heavily anticipating. In bed, just before going to sleep. In these transitional moments, many people reach for their phones — not to scroll, but to play.
Millions of mobile gamers prize stress relief over winning
(Sheeka Sanahori) In the school’s car pickup line, five minutes before it starts moving. In the doctor’s office waiting room for an appointment that you’ve been heavily anticipating. In bed, just before going to sleep. In these transitional moments, many people reach for their phones — not to scroll, but to play.
According to a June 2026 survey of more than 128,000 KashKick mobile gamers, playing a mobile game is more than a way to pass the time. Stress relief and relaxation are the top reasons respondents play, beating out entertainment and fun. As KashKick reports, for many people, this means mobile games are less a simple distraction and more a coping mechanism for the daily stress of life.
A quick reset for life’s transitional moments
Most respondents identify as women, and 60% live in households that earn less than $50,000 per year. In the ranking of their reasons for playing, stress relief and relaxation topped the list, with boredom relief, entertainment and fun close behind.
The ranking reads less like a profile of a gaming hobby and more like a profile of a coping behavior.
More than half of the respondents play games daily or multiple times a day. When they reach for a mobile game, about 53% of the time it’s for a short session—usually 30 minutes or less. Where and when people play tells its own story: 58% play in bed before going to sleep and 40% play in the bathroom. These are private, solitary moments, not the times people typically plan entertainment into their day.
Coping with stress by gaming
To understand why respondents play games for stress relief more than for fun, it helps to look at who they are. Among those surveyed, 19% say they’re unemployed or looking for work, and 60% live in lower-income households. There are likely some areas of their life where they must make every dollar stretch to cover the things they need.
The survey findings coincide with research from the American Psychological Association’s 2025 Stress in America report. According to the report, 18% of men and 22% of women under age 65 rate their stress level at eight or higher on a scale of one to 10. Although the KashKick survey didn’t measure stress, respondents are mostly women and fall within the age and income groups the APA found to carry the most stress.
The APA’s report also describes loneliness as a major strain for Americans. The KashKick survey didn’t measure feelings of isolation, but 55% prefer to play alone, and 60% rarely or never discuss their gameplay with friends or family.
Overall, the survey identifies a group of people who have found a routine, low-cost approach to cope with stress. They’re not necessarily there to get the highest score. They’re playing a mobile game to help them navigate a day that, with all of life’s to-dos and challenges, could quickly feel overwhelming.
Methodology
The KashKick Gaming Habits Survey was fielded from June 8, 2026, through Aug. 10, 2026, among KashKick members in the United States who play mobile games. The Gaming Habits Survey was available to all members on KashKick’s Surveys page post-profile completion. The survey received 128,218 total responses, with question-level response counts ranging from approximately 109,793 to 128,218 depending on attrition. All findings describe KashKick mobile gamers and should not be interpreted as representative of U.S. mobile gamers overall. Industry and stress context references publicly available data from the American Psychological Association, Statista, and Newzoo.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock
SOURCE:
KashKick
📰 Enjoying STM Daily News? Join the conversation!
💬 Leave a comment, share your thoughts, and subscribe to our newsletter for the latest stories, updates, and “News You Can Use This Moment!” delivered to your inbox.
Stay connected with STM Daily News!
LIGHTSPEED STUDIOS used GDC 2026 to spotlight the next phase of its “Original IP Initiative,” outlining a proprietary development framework aimed at building high-end, original AAA games for a global audience. The studio said the initiative, first introduced at GDC 2025, now includes active development of a new globally driven blockbuster title and a more formalized system for shaping future intellectual property.
A major part of that strategy came from newly appointed Creative Director Feng Zhu, who described a structured approach to original game creation centered on strong visual identity, disciplined worldbuilding, and repeatable production methods. During his GDC session, Zhu introduced the studio’s “90:10 Balance” philosophy, where 90% of a game is grounded in real-world references like authentic locations, historical context, and realistic proportions, while the remaining 10% is used to deliver the creative hooks, tension, and storytelling elements that define the title’s identity.
LIGHTSPEED also emphasized its investment in production infrastructure, including a purpose-built in-house motion capture facility in Los Angeles. Led by Motion Capture Studio Manager Kristin Gallagher, the studio says the facility is designed to handle complex performance capture with greater efficiency, supported by a custom API and advanced technical pipeline developed jointly by teams in LA and across the company’s global network.
The announcement reinforces LIGHTSPEED STUDIOS’ broader ambition to grow beyond service and co-development work into a stronger portfolio of original blockbuster properties. Best known as a co-developer of PUBG MOBILE and the developer of the upcoming Last Sentinel, the company says its long-term focus is on delivering cinematic, culturally resonant game experiences built for players worldwide.
Related Links
Source
Visit the Entertainment section on STM Daily News for the latest entertainment news, movie updates, TV coverage, music stories, pop culture trends, and event highlights.
