Month: June 2019

E3 2019 is only a few days away, but before we learn about a bunch of hot new games launching over the coming months, we have to take a look at June. The new month is full of big names like the goblin-filled Warhammer: Chaosbane, the high-octane Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, and the fully customizable Super Mario Maker 2. There’s also a pair of action-packed games out of Japan, Judgment and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.

Warhammer: Chaosbane — June 4

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC

The latest video game take on the tabletop classic isn’t about strategy–this is a hack-and-slash game. As the name implies, it’s up to you to battle the forces of chaos using four different classes. You can take on the horde in four-player co-op too, then jump into boss rush mode if you need an extra challenge.

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Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night — June 18 (PS4, Xbox One, PC) / June 25 (Switch)

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch

If Bloodstained reminds you of Castlevania, there’s a good reason: this action game comes from ex-Castlevania boss Koji Igarashi. The Kickstarter-funded project takes cues from Symphony of the Night, with a big castle to explore, monsters to slay, and powerful magic to acquire. You’ll take on the roles of Miriam and Zangetsu, with the goal of stopping the evil alchemist Gebel.

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Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled — June 21

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, Switch

Nitro-Fueled isn’t just a remake of Crash Team Racing–it also includes tracks from Crash Nitro Kart and Crash Tag Team Racing. You can take the wheel with every playable racer from those games, plus some new ones that were just boss characters before. You can take some trap-filled laps in both local and online multiplayer.

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Judgment — June 25

Available on: PS4

Much like Bloodstained, Judgment might remind you of another game. In this case, Yakuza comparisons are totally apt, since this spin-off is set in a lot of the same locations. It even uses the same combat system, letting you swap between styles during the fight. But it’s not about the Japanese mob; Judgment sees detective Takayuki Yagami solving a series of murders.

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Super Mario Maker 2 — June 28

Available on: Switch

There’s almost too much to talk about with this Super Mario Maker sequel. You can build custom levels with a ton of new tools, and the story mode introduces some Mario mechanics you might not be familiar with, like the Angry Sun, Banzai Bills, and new level themes. What’s more, you can take on all the courses online cooperatively and competitively.

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New Releases will be taking a break next week with E3 kicking off. In two weeks, we’ll return with a special episode featuring all the big new release dates from the show. Check out our E3 2019 press conference schedule for an idea of what’s to come.

The latest box office numbers are in, and Godzilla: King of the Monsters was No. 1. It made an estimated $49 million in the United States and Canada to come out on top in its debut weekend. That is a massive number, but it was slightly below industry projections of $50 million, according to Entertainment Weekly, which supplied all the box office numbers.

Additionally, the $49 million start is well below the movies that it serves as a sequel to. 2014’s Godzilla made $93.2 million over its opening weekend, while 2016’s Kong: Skull Island–which is in the same MonsterVerse–debuted with $61 million over its first weekend.

King of the Monsters made $130 million from overseas markets for a global opening-weekend haul of $179 million. The movie stars Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, and Ken Watanabe; it was directed by Michael Dougherty (Superman Returns, X-Men 2).

Disney’s Aladdin made $42.3 million in its second weekend to finish No. 2, while the Elton John biopic Rocketman starring Taron Egerton was No. 3 with $25 million. Another new movie, the Octavia Spencer-starring horror film Ma made $18.3 million to land at No. 4, while John Wick 3 rounded up the top five $11.1 million.

Avengers: Endgame made a further $7.8 million to to push its lifetime domestic box office to more than $815.5 million. Worldwide, Endgame has made $2.713 billion, which is still behind Avatar’s all-time record of $2.788 billion.

May 31-June 2

Via Entertainment Weekly

1. Godzilla: King of the Monsters — $49 million
2. Aladdin — $42.3 million
3. Rocketman — $25 million
4. Ma — $18.3 million
5. John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum — $11.1 million
6. Avengers: Endgame — $7.8 million
7. Pokemon Detective Pikachu — $6.7 million
8. Booksmart — $3.3 million
9. Brightburn — $2.3 million
10. The Hustle — $1.3 million

Beyond Good & Evil 2, the long-awaited Ubisoft sequel, will not be at E3 2019 this month. In a blog post, the developer said it’s focusing on “core development milestones.” As such, Beyond Good & Evil 2 won’t have a presence at E3 2019.

“This year, as we are focusing on core development milestones, we will not be attending E3 2019,” reads a line from the blog post.

More gameplay footage and other news about the game will be announced “when the time is right.” On the more immediate horizon, the next Space Monkey Report livestream event for the game will take place on June 5 at 6 PM PT. You can watch on Twitch, YouTube and Facebook.

“You continue to inspire us by sharing your ideas and creativity with the Beyond Good and Evil 2 dev team and community, and we really appreciate our Space Monkeys’ passion and dedication!”

This development follows the news from April when Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot suggested that changes might be afoot for Beyond Good & Evil 2. At the time, Guillemot said he recently spoke with creative director Michel Ancel about “another direction” for the game.

“I spoke with Michel last week about it to see where it was going; how we should move in one or another direction,” Guillemot said in a video that was apparently recorded in March. “We see the potential of this universe is fantastic, and Michel is really passionate [about it]. It’s going to be fantastic, I think.

In an intriguing bit of news, actor Joseph Gordon Levitt’s creative company, HitRecord, is partnering with Ubisoft for the tools so anyone can create content for Beyond Good and Evil 2.

Beyond Good & Evil 2 is a prequel to the 2003 original. It’s been in the works for a long time, but there is still no release date or announced platforms.

As for what Ubisoft will show off at E3 this year, the company has already confirmed Ghost Recon Breakpoint will be there. Ubisoft also announced it has three more triple-A games releasing by March 31, 2020. It hasn’t detailed what those are, but they’re very likely to be announced at E3, and one of them could be the rumored Watch Dogs 3. In addition to games, Ubisoft might announce a game-streaming service called Ubisoft Pass.

Ubisoft’s press conference will take place on Monday, June 10 at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET / 9 PM BST (6 AM AET on June 11), sandwiched between Limited Run Games and Square Enix. You can check out the full press conference schedule for full details.

A new trailer for Walt Disney/20th Century Fox’s upcoming racing movie Ford v. Ferrari has arrived. Matt Damon stars as Ford car designer Carroll Shelby whop recruits British driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale) to create a car that could beat Enzo Ferrari’s at the Le Mans competition in 1966.

John Bernthan, Tracy Letts, Josh Lucas, Caitriona Balfe, Noah Rupe, Ray McKinnon, and Remo Girone also star in the movie that’s directed by Oscar nominated director James Mangolf (Logan, Girl, Interrupted). Ford v Ferarri opens on November 15.

Walt Disney/Fox also released a new poster and a series of production stills for Ford v Ferrari. Click through the images below the poster to see them all.

Ford v Ferarri opens on November 15.

Cuphead, the extra-challenging indie game from StudioMDHR, is coming to a new platform, but it’s probably not the one you’d expect. The game is coming to Tesla’s suite of electric vehicles.

Tesla founder Elon Musk confirmed this in an interview with the Ride the Lightning podcast. The game is already up and running for Tesla’s Model 3, Model S, and Model X, and Tesla worked with the game’s developer, StudioMDHR, to get it running.

“Cuphead we’ve got working. It’s a cool game. It’s insanely difficult. It’s sadistically difficult,” Musk said.

Cuphead runs on the Unity game engine, which Tesla has been working to port to Tesla’s own operating system. Musk also said there is a dune buggy game in the works for Tesla.

The game developer StudioMDHR confirmed to IGN that they’re looking to launch Cuphead for Tesla cars this summer. The game only includes the Inkwell Isle One part of the game due in part to storage space considerations.

“When Tesla reached out to us to bring Cuphead to their vehicles, we were thrilled!” StudioMDHR’s Maja Moldenhauer said. “Finding out that Mr. Musk was a fan of our game was extremely humbling and getting a chance to work with such an innovative company has been really exciting. We hope Cuphead can add some classic fun to such forward-thinking vehicles.”

You need a wired USB controller to play Cuphead in a Tesla; it does not support touchscreen controls.

Cuphead is not Tesla’s first in-car game. A number of Atari classics are already available, including Asteroids and Lunar Lander. In all cases, video games can only be played in Tesla cars when they’re parked.

Cuphead initially launched in 2017 for Xbox One and PC before launching for Nintendo Switch in April this year. The game has sold more than 3 million copies (but this doesn’t count the Switch version).

Robert Pattinson is the new Batman, and the upcoming 2021 film will be the first in a new trilogy. That’s according to Deadline, which said he heard from sources that Warner Bros. is preparing three Batman movies under “The Batman” name.

Matt Reeves, who directed Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes, is directing the three new Batman movies.

The Batman 1 is scheduled for release on June 25, 2021, but no dates have been set for the two sequels. Apart from Pattinson, no other actors for The Batman have been announced, while story details are under wraps for now as well. Nicholas Hoult was reportedly the other front-runner to get the role of Batman before Warner Bros. decided on Pattinson.

Pattinson is perhaps best known for his starring role in the Twilight series as Edward Cullen. Before that, Pattinson played Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. His latest movie was the black-and-white horror film The Lighthouse.

Ben Affleck was originally set to star and direct The Batman. Affleck, who played Batman in Batman v. Superman and Justice League, stepped down as director in early 2017, and more recently confirmed that he was no longer involved at all, stating that he had “tried to direct a version of it, but couldn’t crack it.”

In a recent interview, Reeves hinted at what fans could expect from the movie. “It’s very much a point of view-driven, noir Batman tale,” he said. “It’s told very squarely on his shoulders, and I hope it’s going to be a story that will be thrilling but also emotional.

“It’s more Batman in his detective mode than we’ve seen in the films. The comics have a history of that. He’s supposed to be the world’s greatest detective, and that’s not necessarily been a part of what the movies have been.”

Big publishers like Microsoft, Ubisoft, and Nintendo might all be holding E3 2019 press conferences, but there’s room for indie developers at E3 too. Publisher Devolver Digital, which publishes a range of quirky, smaller titles, is holding an E3 press conference, and if its past showcases are anything to go by, this is sure to be one of the more interesting briefings at E3.

What Time Does Devolver’s Press Conference Livestream Start?

Devolver’s E3 2019 press conference is scheduled to begin on Sunday, June 9 at 7 PM PT / 10 PM ET. For those in the UK, that’s a late one, with a start time of 3 AM BST on June 10. Australian fans can enjoy a nice Devolver lunch at 12 PM AET, also on June 10.

How To Watch

Usually, publishers stream their conferences to every possible device and channel. However, it appears Devolver is broadcasting their E3 briefing via Twitch only. Of course, GameSpot will keep you up-to-date with all the big news, so don’t fret if you can’t watch along live.

What To Expect

The unexpected! Devolver has developed a reputation for wacky conferences–to suit their often wacky games. The show’s host often makes jabs at video game industry trends and gaming culture in general–with tongue planted firmly in cheek, of course.

Its slate of upcoming games includes My Friend Pedro, Sometimes Always Monsters, The Talos Principle 2, Serious Sam 4: Planet Badass, Metal Wolf Chaos XD, and more, so it’s possible we’ll see more of those. For more on the convention, check out the schedule of all the E3 2019 press conferences.