The PlayStation 4 has reached a huge milestone. According to Sony’s latest earnings report, the console shipped 3.2 million units worldwide during the first quarter of the fiscal year 2019, up from the 2.6 million it moved during the final quarter of FY2018. When combined with the 96.8 million units the system had sold as of this past April, that brings its global lifetime numbers up to a staggering 100 million.
According to video game analyst Daniel Ahmad, the PS4 has now become the fastest console to hit the 100 million mark, surpassing both the PS2 and Nintendo’s Wii. It took the PS2 five years and nine month to reach that milestone, while the PS4 was able to do so in five years and seven months. Sony expects to sell 15 million PS4 systems this fiscal year, which would bring console up to 111.8 million units by March 31, 2020.
Hardware wasn’t the only milestone Sony surpassed. In the same earnings report, the company revealed that digital purchases of full PS4 games during this past quarter hit 53%, the first time more players had purchased digital copies of games over physical ones. Meanwhile, PlayStation Plus reached 36.2 million subscribers–up year-over-year from the 33.9 million it had in the first quarter of FY2018.
These are especially impressive results considering the PS4 is entering its seventh year on the market, and its successor, the PS5, is looming on the horizon. While the next-generation console isn’t expected to launch until at least 2020, Sony has already begun revealing tidbits of information about it. The company has already confirmed it will be backwards compatible with PS4 games, and we know the system will still have a disc drive and use a solid state drive.
While PS5 may be approaching, there are still a few major releases in store for the PS4. Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima’s enigmatic Death Stranding launches on November 8, while the highly anticipated Final Fantasy VII Remake arrives on March 3, 2020. The Last of Us: Part II is also on the way. While it doesn’t yet have a concrete release date, Ellie actress Ashley Johnson teased it could be launching in February 2020.
One of the most interesting character arcs between Avengers: Endgame and Infinity War is Bruce Banner/Hulk’s transformation into Professor Hulk. Taking essentially two different characters and smashing them into one creates a exceptionally unique character arc; however, it’s one we never get to see take place on screen. With the digital release of Avengers: Endgame, the audio commentary for the film explained that at one point, the audience did get to see Banner and Hulk become Professor Hulk, but it actually wasn’t in this movie.
While the character’s transformation was a surprise for viewers in Endgame, originally, fans got to see the scene in Infinity War. “We called him Smart Hulk throughout the shoot,” explained screenwriter Steve McFeely during the commentary for Endgame. “The creation of Smart Hulk, used to take place in Infinity War. He was fighting in Wakanda. The whole arc of the story was Banner and Hulk were not getting along. Hulk wouldn’t come out to help him. And at his hour of greatest need, they make some sort of compromise, and Smart Hulk rips out of the [Iron Man] armor and beats the crap out of Cull Obsidian and destroys him. It was pretty clear that the movie could not handle this weird success. The movie needed to just stay in its succession of losses in the third act, which meant some hustling on the part of VFX late in the game.”
That scene was part of the movie until late in post-production. “Cutting that out was a decision made during the editing process on Infinity War, by which point we had already shot Endgame,” screenwriter Chris Markus stated. Apparently, this was even shown to test audiences, and people had trouble accepting it. Director Anthony Russo went on to say that they didn’t have enough space to tell this story, as everything was happening so quickly during the climax of the film.
“Imagine before Thanos shows up, we had a scene where Hulk comes out of the bushes, and Natasha says, ‘Hey, big guy, sun’s getting low.’ And [Hulk] says, ‘Oh Natasha, that’s not… We don’t need that now,'” continued McFeely. “And speaks in perfect English, and you’re supposed to be kind of delighted and jarred by it, and then they’re all gonna get dusted. It was just tonally off.
“The Snap worked out for him in a way, right? He is his best self. He is sort of the last remaining superhero. Many [fans] want to take pictures with him in the diner. For most other people, I guess Tony aside, it didn’t work out… I think the core conflict of who Banner is, is that there are two characters fighting over a host body, and they hate each other, and that’s been the story with him for years. At some point, Banner, who’s an intelligent human being, decides, ‘What if we put the hate aside, and we try to resolve this in a way that is holistic?’ And he merges the two of them.”
Avengers: Endgame is available now digitally through various retailers. The home release contains the aforementioned audio commentary with the writers and directors of the film, as well as deleted scenes, numerous featurettes, and a gag reel. The 4K/Blu-ray version of the movie won’t hit stores until August 13.
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The Walking Dead comic book might have come to a surprise ending this month, but the TV version of the zombie franchise keeps on growing. Season 10 of the main show premieres in October, and the spin-off Fear the Walking Dead was recently renewed for a sixth season. There’s also a second spin-off on the way, and the first teaser has now been released.
The teaser doesn’t show any footage from the show–and we still don’t know the title. However, it does reveal some of the young cast members, talking direct to camera about what we can expect from the show. “There have been things going on in The Walking Dead universe since the very start of the story, all happening over all these years,” we are told. “In other places we haven’t seen. With people we haven’t seen. With the dead we haven’t seen. But we’ll see it all this spring.” The teaser also features various shots of intriguing concept art–check it out below.
The new Waking Dead series stars Aliyah Royale as Iris, Annet Mahendru as Huck, Alexa Mansour as Hope, Nicolas Cantu as Elton, and Hal Cumpston as Silas. Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts directs the first episode. Plans for the new series were first revealed in March.
The Walking Dead featured at San Diego Comic-Con earlier this month, where news emerged about the three upcoming spin-off movies. The films will focus on Andrew Lincoln’s character of Rick Grimes, and a teaser for the first movie was screened. While the film doesn’t have a release date or title yet, we did learn that it will get a theatrical release. It was also announced that longtime star Danai Gurira, who plays Michonne in The Walking Dead, will be leaving the show after Season 10.
Obsidian’s RPG The Outer Worlds is coming relatively soon, but if you can wait a little while longer you’ll be able to play it on the go. The studio announced that it will be bringing the game to Nintendo Switch sometime following its launch on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
A brief video with senior producer Matthew Singh details the basics of the game and its port to Switch. This version is being developed in partnership with Virtuos, a studio that has pitched in on Switch versions of games like Dark Souls Remastered and Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age. The video didn’t detail a firm release date, only that it will come sometime after the other versions that are slated for October 25.
“It kind of blends two of my passions,” Singh said. “I’ve been a lifetime Nintendo fan ever since I was three, I’ve had the NES all the way through every single console and every single handheld. I’m super excited to be able to take the type of experience we have and to be able to finally play it on a handheld platform. Today we can play a full experience, on-the-go, anywhere you want. Hopefully we can find an audience for people who may have never had this type of experience before.”
The Outer Worlds looks similar to the modern Fallout games–sensible for the studio that made New Vegas–but the setting is instead a space-hopping adventure. Like those games, though, it’s defined by open-ended choices, and you can even become the villain. Microsoft recently purchased Obsidian, but The Outer Worlds is being published through Take-Two’s Private Division label.
The Fast & Furious series might be nearly 20 years old, but it shows no sign of slowing down. The first spin-off, Hobbs & Shaw, hits theaters this week and the next film in the series is also in production. Now regular series writer Chris Morgan has suggested that a future movie could have an usual setting–outer space.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Morgan revealed that no setting was off-limits for the franchise, as long as it fulfilled some simple criteria. “I would never shoot down space,” he said. “Never, never. I would literally never shoot down anything, as long as it hits the parameters: ‘Is it badass? is it awesome? Will the audience love it? And will it not break faith with the audience as they’re watching it?’ I’m down for whatever.”
While a space adventure for Dominic Toretto and crew might happen at some stage, it won’t be the currently-untitled ninth Fast & Furious movie, which hits theaters on May 22, 2020. It’s directed by Justin Lin, who has made four of the previous movies, and stars series regulars Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, and Tyrese Gibson, with Charlize Theron and Helen Mirren both returning from 2018’s The Fate of the Furious.
FIFA 20‘s cover stars have been revealed, with one of three different players adorning the case depending on which version you buy.
Eden Hazard is the star of the standard edition following his move to Real Madrid this summer. The Champions edition, meanwhile, is paraded by Liverpool defender and PFA player of the year Virgil Van Dijk. Finally, France legend Zinedine Zidane is on the cover for FIFA 20’s Ultimate edition and will be available as an Icon card in Ultimate Team.
FIFA 20 launches for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on September 27. Legacy editions will come to Switch and older consoles, with updated kits and squads but lacking any substantial changes. The PS4, Xbox One, and PC standard editions come with three rare gold packs for FUT, while the Champions edition comes with 12 and will be released three days earlier, on September 24. The Ultimate edition also unlocks that day but comes with 24 rare gold packs as well as a guaranteed untradeable FUT Ones to Watch card. The three versions cost $60 / £60 / AU $100, $80 / £80 / AU $120, and $100 / £90 / AU $140, respectively.
EA’s search for a new cover star has seemingly been a tricky one. Last year, Cristiano Ronaldo was all over FIFA 19‘s marketing material, but the Portuguese forward was later accused of rape, with EA stating at the time it was “closely monitoring the situation.” The charges have since been dropped, but Ronaldo’s move to Juventus–who are no longer licensed in FIFA–apparently scuppered any lingering chances of him remaining on the series’ cover.
Halfway through last season, EA replaced the FIFA 19 cover featuring Ronaldo with one focusing on Kevin De Bruyne, Paolo Dybala, and Neymar. This time around Dybala was a no-go due to his ongoing employment at Juventus, while Neymar was also accused of rape. Those charges have been dropped because of a lack of evidence, pending a final review.
As promised, Nintendo shared a load of new details about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate‘s next DLC character, the Hero from Dragon Quest, during today’s special video presentation. Not only did game director Masahiro Sakurai give us a detailed look at the Hero’s moves, he confirmed when the DLC fighter will go live, and it’s very soon.
The Hero will join the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster today, July 30. This news doesn’t come as much of a surprise. It was expected the Hero would release this month when he was featured among July’s other big Nintendo Switch releases in a recent promotional video.
The Hero’s default look is based on the Luminary from Dragon Quest XI, while his alternate costumes are the heroes from Dragon Quests III, IV, and VIII. Each of his special attacks are inspired by different spells from the Dragon Quest series. His neutral special fires off a Frizz that can be powered up to Frizzle or Kafrizz depending on how long you charge it; his side special unleashes Zap spells; and his up special unleashes Woosh spells. However, you won’t be able to use these spells if your MP gauge is too low.
The Hero’s down special, meanwhile, is the Command Selection. This pulls up a command menu just as you’d see in a true Dragon Quest game. The commands are randomized each match and allow you to select a spell or other move, such as Oomph, which buffs Hero’s attack power for a limited time, or Kaclang, which will temporarily turn him metal. Between all of these possible attacks, Sakurai says the Hero has the highest number of moves of any character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Arriving alongside the Hero is a new stage called Yggdrasil’s Altar, which is based on a location in Dragon Quest XI. Occasionally a chest will appear on the stage; if you open it, you may either receive an item or be attacked by a Mimic. Additionally, a handful of new Dragon Quest Spirits are being added to the Spirit Board. A couple of new Mii Fighter costumes based on the Dragon Quest series will be available for purchase as well; these will each run for 75 cents apiece.
The Hero is included as part of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s Fighters Pass, which costs $25 USD and grants owners access to five DLC characters as they’re released, including the already available Joker from Persona 5 and the upcoming Banjo-Kazooie. Each DLC fighter can also be purchased individually for $6 USD and comes with a brand-new stage, an assortment of music tracks drawn from their series, and a handful of new unlockable Spirits.
The aforementioned Banjo-Kazooie are the next DLC characters coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The bear and bird duo are slated to arrive sometime this fall, although no release date has been announced just yet. Nintendo still has two other unannounced fighters on the way to the game by February 2020.
Releasing alongside the Hero today is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s 4.0 update, which adds a few new features to the game, including a Final Smash meter time limit and a Very Easy difficulty setting for the World of Light adventure mode. The patch also introduces an Online Tournament mode, which will occasionally host special event tournaments, as well as a new spectate mode that allows you to try to predict who will win a match; guess correctly and you’ll earn tokens that you can then exchange for items. You can rewatch the Hero presentation above.
As detailed in the presentation, the patch will add a time limit to your Final Smash meter, making it more difficult to play the waiting game. This change appears like it was designed to encourage players to go ahead and use it while they have the chance, making for more active battles. An Online Tourney mode has also been added to competitive play, and it will occasionally offer special rule sets to create some variety.
For players who just want to get through Adventure Mode without too much hassle, the game is adding a Very Easy difficulty. Or if you want to kick back and watch other people play, the Spectate Mode now offers rewards for placing a prediction on the winner. You can use the tokens you earned to purchase rewards, but there’s no wagering involved in placing a guess, so there’s no real downside risk to playing along and placing a prediction. The update also makes tweaks to sharing functions, like the ability to add screenshots to your video clips.
All of this is in addition to the new Hero character, who is also coming with the 4.0 update starting today (July 30). He’s available for $6, or with the Fighter’s Pass of five characters for $25. We already know the next DLC character will be Banjo-Kazooie, on loan from Rare. For more details on how Dragon Quest’s Hero plays, check out all the new gameplay details from the presentation.
If Amazon’s Lord of the Rings TV show stumbles, it won’t be for lack of talent, it seems. The company has announced some of the creative talent behind the scenes, including writers, producers, and artists.
In short, the show is absolutely stacked with talent.
The showrunners are JD Payne and Patrick McKay. They have no TV writing credits to their name, but neither did D.B. Weiss and David Benioff before the start of Game of Thrones. The writers room for the untitled Lord of the Rings show includes Gennifer Hutchinson (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul), Helen Shang (Hannibal), Justin Dohle (Stranger Things), Bryan Cogman (Game of Thrones), and Stephany Folsom (Toy Story 4).
Cogman in particular is a big get for Amazon, as the veteran Game of Thrones producer was the “third head of the dragon” for HBO’s fantasy show alongside Weiss and Benioff.
J.A. Bayona, the director of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, is directing episodes 1 and 2 of the Lord of the Rings show.
Kate Hawley is the costume designer; she previously worked on Edge of Tomorrow and Suicide Squad. Rick Heinrichs, who won an Oscar for Sleepy Hollow and also worked on The Last Jedi, is the production designer; Jason Smith, who worked on The Revenant, Super 8, and The Avengers) is the visual effects supervisor. Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey is also working on the new Amazon show, as is Lord of the Rings movie trilogy illustrator and concept artist John Howe.
The Amazon show also has numerous producers, including people who have worked on Westworld, Boardwalk Empire, 10 Cloverfield Lane, and The Departed.
Earlier this month, it was reported that the Lord of the Rings TV show cast its first series regular, Markella Kavenagh, in the role of a character named Tyra.
The Lord of the Rings show is set before the events of JRR Tolkien’s trilogy of books and Peter Jackson’s movie adaptations. It will take place during the Second Age, which is a 3,441-year period that covered major events like the forging of the Rings of Power, the War of Sauron, the beginning of the Ringwraiths, and the Numenor island sinking into the ocean.
The show will air on Amazon Prime, though a release date has not been announced.
Mobile games have never been more alive or better than right now with quirky experiences like Donut County, narratives like Florence, and Fortnite being more popular than ever. At the same time, smartphones have gotten better and now there are even a few handsets designed specifically for gaming.These iOS and Android phones made for gaming are a step up from your average regular handset and they come packing overclocked processors and high-refresh-rate screens hitting 90Hz and up. Some gaming smartphones even feature specialized cooling systems such as liquid cooling or internal fans. Gaming phones is a burgeoning category in the smartphone world, and I’ve picked out the best ones just for you.
The Asus ROG Phone (read our review) is without a doubt, the best gaming phone right now. Featuring binned 2.96GHz Snapdragon 845 processors (0.16GHz faster than usual), a 90Hz display, and virtualized air triggers, playing Fortnite and PUBG Mobile on this gaming phone has never felt better. Thanks to its vapor chambers and liquid cooling system, this phone will also stay cool to the touch and the phone comes with an included attachable fan to stay even cooler.
Asus also has the most complete line of accessories for the ROG Phone complete with controllers—including one that adds a second screen—desktop dock, and a WiGig dock to connect the phone wirelessly to your gaming TV. It also has the same distinct copper, orange on gunmetal gamer aesthetic as the company’s gaming laptops with a design that makes the phone look almost like an Iron Man suit.
The Nubia Red Magic 3 is a gaming phone powerful enough to hang with the crowd of flagships like the Razer Phone 2 and Asus ROG Phone, but at a fraction of the price starting at $480. Despite being so much cheaper, this budget smartphone comes with the leading Snapdragon 855 processor. It also packs plenty of gaming-specific features including touchpad shoulder buttons, plus liquid-cooling and an internal fan to keep it cool.
With the Nubia Red Magic 3 you’ll be playing on a large 6.5-inch—albeit only Full HD—90Hz screen. For less than $500 you’re getting a lot of phone as it comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage to start, not to mention a massive 5,000mAh battery that will keep you gaming for a long time.
The Razer Phone 2’s (read our review) most unique feature out of all the gaming phones is its 120Hz QHD display that makes gameplay look smoother than any other gaming smartphone. The handset also has a built-in 24-bit DAC that enhances your audio to go with that great screen.
A Snapdragon 845 processor powers this whole experience, meanwhile a vapor chamber cooling system and a massive heat-pipe help keep this complete package running cool. Instead of having a global gaming mode like other phones, Razer has a curated list of mobile games in its Cortex Mobile app, which automatically adjusts settings like resolution, frame rate, and CPU clock speeds to run games optimally.
Apple might not have a horse in the PC gaming race, but it’s still a leader on the mobile front. Plenty of mobile games launch first on the App Store and sometimes exclusively and the best device to play all these titles is the iPhone XS Max.
The iPhone XS Max features a big, beautiful 6.4-inch Super Retina HD display, and its resolution actually exceeds that of modern QHD phones. It also comes packing the A12 Bionic chip, which regularly puts Qualcomm mobile (and even Intel laptop chips) to shame.
The Xiaomi Black Shark 2 was built for gaming first and you can tell just by holding its contoured shape. It’s like it was meant to be gripped in landscape mode for gaming. This gaming phone also features one of the biggest 6.39-inch AMOLED screens with a 1,080 x 2,340 resolution—but only 60Hz refresh rate.
The Black Shark 2 also features plenty of gaming specific software with a myriad of pull down Gamer Studio options to adjust the performance of your phone as well as display, touch, audio and networking settings. Like the Asus ROG Phone, Xiaomi has plenty of accessories designed for the Black Shark 2 including an attachable controller and TV connection hub.
If all screen mobile gaming is what you seek, the OnePlus 7 Pro (read our review) is the best gaming phone for this particular job. The OnePlus 7 Pro skips all the front camera notches and bottom button business to give you a truly edge-to-edge 6.67-inch 1,440 x 3,120 display.
This gaming phone also comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chip that’s plenty fast for even the most demanding mobile games. But you can also turn on Fnatic mode to prioritize processing power and networking speeds for whichever game you’re playing. There’s also a basic gaming mode that blocks notifications, enhances haptic feedback, and activates a faux-HDR display mode that presents brighter highlights and deeper blacks on the screen.
Just like sleeper gaming PCs, sometimes you just want a normal looking phone that offers better graphics performance than everyone else. That’s where the Samsung Galaxy S10 (read our review) comes in to play. It’s one of the best and most popular smartphones around that’s also been carefully tuned for gaming.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 is the first phone optimized for Unity-run games. Also, the GPU has been optimized for smoother gameplay for all mobile games no matter which engine they’re built on. Users can also turn on an enhanced gaming mode on the Galaxy S10 that gives you better video and audio from the Infinity-O display and Dolby speakers.
This phone also features an “advanced heat pipe” cooling systems, which helps it stay cooler than other competing handsets. The Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus is also a great option if you want an even bigger screen and a vapor chamber cooling system to cool things down even more.
What to Look for in a Gaming Phone
Choosing the right gaming phone is a little different than finding the best smartphone. With regular phones you might be more interested in battery life, the cameras, and a plethora of other specs, but the best gaming phones are all about their screens and processors with everything else being less important.
With that in mind, we’ll start with the processors. You pretty much want the latest chips available, which for Android are the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Snapdragon 855, and the newly announced Snapdragon 855 Plus chips. On Apple’s side, you should look for an iPhone with either an A11 Bionic or A12 Bionic CPU.
In terms of displays, you should pick out anything that’s a step up from your average phone screen. Often, smartphones made for gaming will feature a display with a refresh rate greater than 60Hz. 90Hz screens are what most of the top gaming phones feature, but we’re starting to see more gaming smartphones with 120Hz displays coming to market as well.
That’s everything thing you need to know about gaming phones for now. We’ll be updating this list periodically, especially as rumors suggest we’re going to see a surge of new gaming smartphones that may include the Asus ROG Phone 2. Xiaomi has also announced that it intends to introduce the Black Shark 2 Pro by the end of the month.
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Kevin Lee is IGN’s Hardware and Roundups Editor. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam
