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Showing posts from October, 2019

Here's How Much Money Frozen 2 Is Expected To Make In Its First Weekend

Disney's next big animated movie, Frozen II, is predictably expected to be a huge hit at the box office. But just how much money is the film expected to pull in? Variety has early box office tracking estimates . They suggest the movie will make more than $100 million for its opening weekend, which would make it the biggest opening weekend haul for a Walt Disney Animation movie ever--Pixar movies are counted separately. Zootopia is the current leader at $75.1 million. By comparison, the 2013 original Frozen made $67.4 million over its first weekend, and a total of $93.6 million for the five-day Thanskgiving period. Frozen wrapped up its run in theatres with a massive $1.3 billion globally. That continues to be the biggest total box office result for an animated movie all time. Frozen II stands to be a massive success due in part to pent up demand. After all, it's been six years since the first movie came out and made "Let It Go" and "Do You Want to Build a Snow

J.R.R. Tolkien's Home Is For Sale, And It's Beautiful -- See Inside The Estate

Would you like to live in the home of J.R.R. Tolkien? Now you can. The Oxford, England home of The Lord of the Rings author is now on the market. Priced at £4,575,000 ($5.93 million USD), the residence is where Tolkien lived from 1930-1947. The 4,000 square-foot home, which was built in 1924, has six bedrooms, high ceilings throughout, and windows that provide ample natural night. There are also multiple reception rooms, a drawing room, and a walk-in pantry. Outside there is a large yard. It's really lovely. Realtor Breckon & Breckon is selling the home--you can see more pictures and get additional details at the official listing here . Tolkien published The Hobbit in 1937, after which he began work on The Lord of the Rings. Presumably he did at least some writing in this home, which no doubt increases the value of the estate. No further Lord of the Rings movies have been announced, but Amazon is spending a lot of money to make a new Lord of the Rings TV show. Just recently

Humans To Compete Against Bears In An Absurd New TV Show

The Discovery Channel has announced a new TV show that pits humans against bears in what's being billed as a unprecedented competition program. The network has given the green light to a show called Man vs. Bear, which is a competition show where "humans will be entering the bear's territory and take them on in a competition like never attempted." Three grizzly bears--whose names are Bart, Honey Bump, and Tank--will compete against three humans in challenges involving speed, strength, and stamina. Each episode will feature five different competitions that are apparently based on what bears do in the wild. Some of the competitions include a tug-of-war between bear and man and another strength test involving pushing big logs. In the final round, the human competitors will square off against the biggest bear, Bart, who stands more than 8 feet tall and weighs 1,400 pounds. All of the bears live in a sanctuary in Utah, which is where the competition will take place. On

EA, Valve Partner to Bring Games, EA Access to Steam

EA and Valve announced Tuesday that the former’s games and services — including the likes of FIFA 20 and EA Access, called Origin Access on PC — will be available on Steam next year. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order kicks off the partnership on November 15. from RSS Feeds | GAMES - RSS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com https://ift.tt/2BTa72X

Ubisoft Confirms First PS5/Scarlett Games, Including Watch Dogs Legion

Ubisoft has announced its first games for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Scarlett . In an earnings call this week, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot confirmed that the five games it plans to launch in Fiscal Year 2021 will be released on both current-generation and next-generation consoles. These include Watch Dogs: Legion , Rainbow Six Quarantine , and Gods & Monsters , as well as two further titles that have not been announced yet. Ubisoft's Fiscal Year 2021 runs April 1, 2020 through March 31, 2021. The PS5 and Xbox Scarlett are each scheduled for release in Holiday 2020. "The five titles will be on this generation and next generation of consoles, and they will take full advantage of all the new features that are coming with the machines," Guillemot said, as reported by IGN . "Which are actually going to be extremely interesting for players, as you'll be able to download new content a lot faster. Players will experience better framerate, so there are lots of very good

Fallout 76 Refunds Available In Australia After Players Complain About Bugs And Other Issues

Australia's top consumer law regulator has announced that some people who bought Fallout 76 will be able to request a refund after ZeniMax acknowledged missteps related to the game. The Australian Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (ACCC) said in a news release that ZeniMax, which owns Bethesda, "acknowledged they were likely to have misled consumers about their consumer guarantee rights in relation to the online action game Fallout 76." ZeniMax's European and Australian divisions "accepted that their actions were likely to have contravened the Australian Consumer Law." Some people complained to the ACCC that ZeniMax staff denied them refunds after they experienced bugs and other network issues with the controversial always-online Fallout game. This runs against Australian Consumer Law. "ZeniMax has acknowledged that they are likely to have misled certain Australian consumers about their rights to a refund when they experienced faults w

Dive Into The World Of The Witcher With This Official Compendium On Sale At Amazon

A new trailer for Netflix's The Witcher series airs later today. The series still doesn't have a release date, but it's supposed to arrive before the end of the year. It has the potential to fill the hole left by the departure of Game of Thrones for some viewers. If you want to learn more about The Witcher ahead of the Netflix adaptation, The World of the Witcher: Video Game Compendium is currently on sale for $22.66 at Amazon (was $40). The World of the Witcher: Video Game Compendium -- $22.66 ( $40 ) See at Amazon The 184-page hardcover is currently listed for $26.59, but if you clip the coupon you can get that price down an extra $3.93. The Witcher Netflix series is technically an adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski's fantasy series, not the popular video game franchise that CD Projekt Red adapted from Sapkowski's books. Still, the compendium could prove useful for those interested in gleaning background information about the world. The illustrated book is a

Red Dead Redemption 2 PC Launch Trailer Shows Paradise In Stunning 4K

Red Dead Redemption 2 is coming to PC in less than a week on November 5, and so far the looks we've gotten at the game in action on high-end hardware have been impressive . With a launch trailer that dropped on Halloween, Rockstar gave us one more visual treat before the game's release. The trailer showcases a specific point in the story of RDR 2, when Arthur Morgan and his fellow Van der Linde gang members are hounded off the mainland and into the Caribbean. It's maybe very slightly spoilerish, but it also gives Rockstar an opportunity to show off some truly beautiful vistas again. If you're already rustling in the Old West with Red Dead Online on consoles, you can participate in the spooky Halloween event for special rewards and partake in discounts on bladed implements like tomahawks. It also introduces a limited-time mode, Fear of the Dark, which grants extra in-game currency. The PC version will still be able to play the special mode for the first week after l

Kenny Omega's AEW Dynamite Entrance Is A Love Letter To Undertale

It's no secret that professional wrestler and executive vice-president of All Elite Wrestling Kenny Omega loves video games. And on the October 30 episode of TNT's weekly wrestling show, AEW Dynamite, Omega showed off his love for Undertale . Before he entered the ring, his video package played a 16-bit cutscene that was very reminiscent of the game, featuring a yellow and red disembodied head, which is totally a knock at the New Japan Pro Wrestling's logo--a company Omega wrestled for--explaining Omega left all his friends and now, he's all alone. This includes a silhouette of Omega's former tag team partner, Kota Ibushi. You can check out the video for yourself below. The sound effects and dialogue from the end of that section are taken directly from Undertale. After the video package ended, Omega entered wearing a Sans mask, while Megalovania--the song from the game--played in the arena. Surprisingly, this worked incredibly well as entrance music for one of t

Nintendo Switch Lite Sells Big In Just 11 Days

The Nintendo Switch Lite is off to a successful start. In its first 11 days on sale, the redesigned, handheld-only Switch model shifted 1.95 million units worldwide, as reported in Nintendo's six months earnings release . In total, Nintendo sold 6.93 million units of Switch hardware in the fiscal second quarter that concluded at the end of September, up 36% on a year-to-year basis. The release of the Switch Lite and a new base model Switch with improved battery life and other improvements, contributed to the increase in hardware sales. Sales of software also rose 38% with Super Mario Maker 2 selling 3.93 million units, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening selling 3.13 million, and Fire Emblem: Three Houses selling 2.29 million. Nintendo also notes that digital sales are up considerably, increasing 83% from the same point last year, with sales accumulating 71.6 billion yen. Over the same six month period, Nintendo's total sales reached 443.9 billion yen, bringing its

New Jumanji Trailer Reveals A New Player... A Horse

The next adventure in the world of Jumanji is almost here, and a new trailer has been released. With the new movie, we're getting some new cast members like Danny Glover . Somehow, the sequel to 2017's Welcome to the Jungle is even weirder. In the trailer, most of the gang is back and in a new world in Jumanji. However, this time around, they're not playing as the same avatars as they did in the last movie, while adding new characters to the cast. Danny Glover's character is in Kevin Hart's body and Danny Devito is in Dwayne Johnson's character. Also, Bethany is now inside a horse. Watch it below. The latest film will take them out of the jungle and into a few different worlds, like the desert and into the mountains, where things feel very much like an episode of Game of Thrones . The Devito/Johnson switch-up was revealed in the first trailer , back in June. For the December film, Nick Jonas is returning, alongside Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Karen Gillan, and

The Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic, Has Now Made Almost $1 Billion In Revenue

The Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic , launched in 2011 behind much anticipation. The game couldn't sustain its paying player population, however, and EA dropped the mandatory subscription in favor of a free-to-play model just 11 months after release. Developer BioWare continues to support the game years after release with its new hybrid business model spread between subscriptions and a microtransaction-supported free-to-play option, and it seems that's working out. Publisher Elctronic Arts announced on an earnings call that The Old Republic is now closing in on $1 billion in lifetime revenue. "Believe it or not, we are close to $1 billion on Star Wars: The Old Republic revenue from the start of its history," EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said. "So it's a business that just keeps on going. We like those types of businesses." $1 billion is a lot of money, but the game itself was a massive, expensive production. According to a 2012 report, EA spent $200 milli

Why The Game Of Thrones Creators Quit Their Star Wars Trilogy - Report

In a big Star Wars shakeup, Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff exited their planned trilogy in what was just the latest loss of top talent for the sci-fi series. At the time, it was believed that the pair's commitment to Netflix was partly the reason they stepped away, but it appears that isn't the whole story. Sources told The Hollywood Reporter that Weiss and Benioff had been thinking about leaving Star Wars since August. That was when the pair signed a five-year, $250 million deal with Netflix to create new movies and TV shows for the streaming network. At the time, Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy was reportedly "unhappy" about the deal with Netflix, which Weiss and Benioff are said to have signed just before they were due to start working on their Star Wars movies. The report goes on: "Kennedy was not convinced the pair--known for focusing on one project at a time--could develop a sci-fi trilogy while also overseeing film and TV pro

Dragon Age 4 Still Happening, But It's A Long Time Away From Release

BioWare continues to work on Dragon Age 4 , but don't expect it to release anytime soon. Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen said on an earnings call that Dragon Age 4 is likely still two or more years away from releasing. He said fans can expect to play Dragon Age 4 after Fiscal Year 2022. That period runs from April 1, 2021 through March 31, 2022, so fans shouldn't expect Dragon Age 4 until April 2022 at the very soonest. Jorgensen said "plans are underway for that product," which makes it sound like it's still early days for Dragon Age 4. After much speculation, Dragon Age 4's first teaser was shown during The Game Awards in December 2018 . A brief teaser trailer showed some slow pans across artifacts, and a hashtag that likely hints at a central story figure. It read, "The Dread Wolf Rises." In a 2018 blog post, BioWare's Mark Darrah confirmed that Dragon Age 4 has been in the works for "quite a while." Some of the "core&quo

Sons Of Anarchy Creator Discusses Why He Was Fired

Sons of Anarchy and Mayans creator Kurt Sutter has spoken up to offer his thoughts on why he thinks Disney fired him. In a statement to cast and crew regarding his firing, Sutter referred to himself as an "abrasive dick," and now he's shared more insight, including details on an off-color joke he made about Walt Disney. Speaking to Deadline , Sutter said he thinks he was seen as a "loose cannon" who did not fit in well with Disney's family friendly approach. "I believe that decision to un-tether myself from corporate process is what led to my dismissal," he said. "In their eyes I was a loose cannon, who could ultimately besmirch the family friendly brand. And they were right. It was best for all parties to part ways." Sutter created Sons of Anarchy, Mayans, and The Bastard Executioner for Fox. Disney acquired Fox and these franchises earlier this year , and as part of this, he became a Disney employee. Sutter is in a tricky place no

Red Dead Redemption 2 On PC: Get $4 To $50 Back On Your Pre-Order (NA)

Red Dead Redemption 2 is finally coming to PC. In fact, it won't be too long until you're able to jump in and live the wild west life of Arthur Morgan, as it releases next week. There are plenty of ways you can pre-order Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC , but the most interesting option for those in the US and Canada might just come from digital games retailer Green Man Gaming . When you pre-order Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC at Green Man Gaming , you get a bonus code for a spin of the site's Wheel of Credit . The Wheel of Credit will net you at least $4 of credit, but if you're lucky like me, you could hit the largest amount of $50. Yep, I can't believe I actually got that much either. See Red Dead Redemption 2 (PC) at Green Man Gaming After spinning, you'll get a voucher code that can be redeemed for a gift card. You just need to add a gift card of the same amount to your cart and then put your code into the designated spot--once you do that, you'll get the

EA, Valve Partner to Bring Games, EA Access to Steam

EA and Valve announced Tuesday that the former’s games and services — including the likes of FIFA 20 and EA Access, called Origin Access on PC — will be available on Steam next year. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order kicks off the partnership on November 15. from RSS Feeds | GAMES - RSS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com https://ift.tt/2BTa72X

PS4 Is Now The Second Best-Selling Console Ever

Sony has detailed its financial results for Q2 2019, which is the three months ended September 30 and revealed the PlayStation 4 shipped 2.8 million units worldwide in this timeframe. This figure is slightly down from Q1 2019, when the console shipped 3.2 million units. However, the figure is enough to make the PS4 the second best-selling console of all time. As confirmed in July 2019, the PS4 reached the 100 million units shipped milestone and, combined with the numbers from Q2 of 2019, that brings it the total up to 102.8 million units, edging the PS4 past the performance of the original PlayStation. However, the PlayStation 2 remains the best-selling console of all time at over 150 million units. Overall, it's been a strong lifecycle for the PS4, which is now in its seventh year on the market. Sony has begun detailing its successor, the PS5 , so the clock is ticking for the PS4. Despite this, there are some big games on the way, including Naughty Dog's The Last of Us 2.

Call Of Duty League Season Will Kick Off In January 2020 With A Launch Weekend Tournament

Call of Duty League, Activision's big Call of Duty eSports push, will begin on January 24, 2020. The event will take place over the Call of Duty League Launch Weekend at the Minneapolis Armory, and will see teams competing in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare . It's the first event of what promises to be a major new league for competitive Call of Duty. The event will see 12 teams play off over three days in five-on-five matches, with a best-of-five format. The exact ruleset will be announced closer to the event. Teams from Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Florida, London, Los Angeles, Minnesota, New York, Paris, Seattle, and Toronto taking part. The Call of Duty League website has further details on the teams competing, and lets you sign up for updates in the lead up to opening weekend. The Call of Duty Challengers Open will take place over that same weekend, allowing amateur teams to compete in an open bracket tournament that will be determined by a series of online tournaments, begin

Mayans MC: A Death Sets The Stage For War In Season 2 Finale

As Mayans MC barrels toward its Season 2 finale, the titular motorcycle club is in a precarious position. After the Sons of Anarchy brokered a deal between the Mayans and a rival club they are on bad terms with, violence broke out, leaving Coco (Richard Cabral) blinded and Riz (Antonio Jaramillo) barely holding onto life. Warning: The following contains spoilers for the ninth episode of Mayans MC Season 2, titled "Itzam-Ye." If you've yet to watch the episode and don't want to have major plot points spoiled, stop reading now. As dire as circumstances seemed after the altercation, they only got worse in the episode that followed, "Itzam-Ye." To protect the deal made with the rival club, the Mayans voted against retaliation as it looked like Riz was going to survive the altercation. After the vote, though, he didn't. Riz is dead, and the vote is null and void. Bishop (Michael Irby) says that much himself when he proclaims it's time to go to war wit

Arrow Cliffhanger Throws Massive Wrench In Crisis Crossover

Just when you thought you were starting to grasp how the upcoming Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover might play out, Arrow is here to take a quick turn, unraveling almost any theory you could possibly have. As the CW series continues its final season, the episodes are designed mainly to continue setting the stage for the massive Crisis event that kicks off in December. However, after the latest episode--titled "Leap of Faith"--everything had changed. Warning: The following contains spoilers for Arrow Season 8, Episode 4, "Leap of Faith." If you don't want to know what happened, stop reading now. In the final moments of the episode, Mia (Katherine McNamara), William (Ben Lewis), and Connor (Joseph David-Jones) were transported from their future to present day, right in the middle of the Arrow cave. It's there that they lay their eyes on Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) and the rest of the team. "Dad?" Mia asks through tears, realizing she's mee

Xbox Insider Members In The US And UK Can Now Try Xbox Console Streaming

Xbox Insider members who are part of the Alpha and Alpha Skip-Ahead rings in either the US or UK are now able to test out Xbox Console Streaming, which allows users to play Xbox One games on devices other than the television they have the console hooked up to. Right now the program is limited to Android mobiles or tablets, Microsoft has announced , which must be running on Android 6.0 or higher and feature Bluetooth 4.0 capabilities. A Bluetooth enabled wireless Xbox One controller is also required. If you meet all of these requirements you'll be able to stream your Xbox games collection, including Xbox Games Pass titles, to a mobile device. Microsoft recommends the use of a controller mount too for maximum comfort. This will allow you to take your Xbox games experiences on the go, as long as you have a strong enough Internet connection or data allowance. Earlier this month Microsoft began the promised public trials for xCloud , allowing Insiders to stream games through their co

The Outer Worlds: Watch A Speedrunner Finish The Game In Under 25 Minutes

The Outer Worlds , Obsidian's new expansive space-faring RPG, has been out less than a week, but it's already attracting speedruns. While most players will take over a dozen hours to finish the game for the first time, one enterprising speedrunner has gotten their completion time down to well under half an hour. It's Jabo managed a run that clocked in at 30:54 earlier this week, before refining his run down to a 24:21 completion time today. In the video below, It's Jabo speeds through the game as fast as possible, skipping whole chunks of the game and intentionally getting a terrible ending in his quest to complete The Outer Worlds as fast as possible. The run involves setting his character's skill levels very deliberately--it's important to play as a character with zero intelligence to trigger the ending he gets. "All in all, a pretty good run, sub 25 has been crushed, now on to sub 24/23 :)," the description under the video reads. In GameSpot&

HBO Max: Here's Our First Look At The New App

Several new details about upcoming streaming service HBO Max have been revealed during a WarnerMedia investor call. We now know that the new service will debut in May 2020 with over 10,000 hours of content, including a continuation of Adventure Time and a brand new Green Lantern series. Prior to this we learned that the new service would have exclusive rights to Friends , and will allow you to stream the films of Studio Ghibli for the first time ever. The new app was shown off during the investor call, giving us our first glimpse of what HBO Max will look like. Below are screengrabs taken during the call, showing off the app's UI and features. The app will open to a Netflix-style user selection screen, which will allow you to differentiate between adult and child accounts easily as you add them. The front page shows off the curation lists that will be a prominent part of HBO Max--if you want to follow Regina King or Bill Hader, or anyone else featured, you'll be able t

EA "Won't Forget" About Titanfall 3, But Wants To Focus On Apex Legends For Now

In its latest quarterly earnings call, EA said it hasn't forgotten about the Titanfall franchise. Though nothing is currently in the pipeline, the dream of one day seeing Titanfall 3 is not yet dead . "We really want to keep the team hyper-focused on [ Apex Legends ] because we see there's so much opportunity there, so I can't give you a sense of if and when [Titanfall 3] will come, but it's still a great brand and we certainly won't forget about it down the road," EA COO and CFO Blake Jorgensen said on the earnings call. In the meantime, EA seems more than content to rely on the Titanfall spin-off, Apex Legends, to fulfill the publisher's annual shooter quota --at least for the immediate future. "We view [Apex Legends] as an annual shooter franchise effectively and we're trying to build that as a 10-year business," Jorgensen said. "We're very excited about the roadmap that the Respawn team has put in place." EA expressed

Game Of Thrones Prequel Announced For HBO

It's been a wild day for Game of Thrones, with one prequel show getting the ax and another one getting the greenlight. Revealed during the WarnerMedia investor event, which mainly covered the upcoming streaming service HBO Max , the Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon, will getting a 10-episode series. Developing... from GameSpot - All Content https://ift.tt/330qDdE

Sony Looking To Sell PlayStation Vue

Sony is reportedly considering selling its streaming service, PlayStation Vue. The service was pitched as a low-cost replacement for cable subscriptions, offering bundles of TV networks at various tiered prices. The Information reports that Sony is looking for a buyer for both the streaming technology and subscriber list, composed of roughly half a million households. The company has reportedly enlisted Merrill Lynch to help facilitate the sale, and has already approached the sports streaming platform FuboTV--though that company declined to purchase. Sony has a number of hurdles to overcome that could be preventing a sale, however. Its content packages may not align with the interests of potential buyers, so any sale could require the purchaser to renegotiate the lineup. Sony also doesn't host any original content on its platform. PlayStation Vue plans start at $50 per month, with an Ultra plan that goes as high as $85 per month with premium channels HBO and Showtime. Despite b

Manifold Garden Review - Stairways To Puzzle Heaven

You stand in a room and the floor is the ceiling, or maybe it's the other way around? No, everything is the floor and you're falling through infinity. Welcome to the Manifold Garden , a game where you need to prepare to have your mind warped by the beauty of repetition and some seriously impressive puzzles. It is an Escher-inspired fever dream of a game--you have the ability to allocate gravity to any side of an environment at any time, and it's surprising just how many different puzzles the game manages to pull from this concept, with new elements gradually being introduced at just the right pace to grant further complexity without being completely daunting. To start, there are colour-coded cubes which need to be placed on switches to open doors or other mechanisms. It doesn't take long to discover these colours are also relevant to their own personal gravity and as such, cubes can only be moved when the world is in that orientation. Add stairs going in different dire