Though the holidays are just about over, it’s time to start spending those gift cards and pick up some games and accessories for your new console. GameStop’s latest weekly ad features deals on a number of Xbox One, PS4, and Switch games. PC gamers can also save on some awesome Corsair gear.
The weekly sale technically runs until January 4, but most of the game deals are deemed “special offers” and are only discounted until January 1. The Division 2 drops all the way down to $12 on PS4 and Xbox One, which is a remarkable price for a game that released in 2019. Gears 5 is 50% off, lowering the price from $60 to $30.
You can browse the full ad at GameStop and check out our favorite deals below–some of which are holdovers from GameStop’s winter sale. You’ll also probably want to take a peek at Amazon’s end-of-year sale, which includes a larger selection of game deals.
Sony’s Uncharted film adaptation has incurred an unexpected setback. Travis Knight, who signed on to helm the project in September 2019, will no longer direct Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg, according to a new report.
Deadline states that Holland’s work with the next Spider-Man installment has caused scheduling conflicts with Knight. As a result, Knight has been pushed out of the director role and the film will receive a brand-new release date. Uncharted was scheduled to hit theatres on December 18, 2020. Sony still plans to move the film forward with a new director, but an announcement on who will lead the project has not been made.
Knight, an animator at stop-motion studio Laika, made his live-action directorial debut with 2018’s Bumblebee. Knight has also worked on 2009’s Coraline, 2012’s Paranorman, 2014’s The Boxtrolls, 2016’s Kubo and the Two Strings, and more. Uncharted would’ve served as Knight’s fifth directorial project.
2019 marked a year of consistent changes for Sony’s Uncharted film adaptation, a project that has been in the works since 2008. It was reported over the summer that the film had been rewritten, with Joe Carnahan penning the first draft. The current script was written by Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, and Rafe Judkins. In addition to several script changes, Uncharted has seen a number of directors sit in the chair, from Shawn Levy to Dan Trachtenberg to Seth Gordon. Knight is the latest director to walk away from the film.
We’ve spent the last few weeks looking back at some of the best games of 2019, but now it’s time to look ahead at what the new year has in store, and it seems 2020 is already shaping up to be another exciting year for gaming. Both Sony and Microsoft will launch new next-generation consoles during the holidays, but in the meantime, there are plenty of big-name titles on the way to current systems.
While most of 2020’s biggest releases are still a few months away, there are a handful of major games on the way to each platform in the first month of the new year. Bandai Namco’s Dragon Ball RPG, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, hits PS4, Xbox One, and PC on January 17, while Switch gets a port of the underrated Wii U RPG, Tokyo Mirage Sessions, on the same day. This month also sees the PC release of Monster Hunter World‘s acclaimed Iceborne expansion, as well as Blizzard’s anticipated Warcraft III remaster.
Those are only a few of the games on the way next month. You can see all the biggest PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch games of January 2020 below, and for a look at all the other announced games on the way next year, be sure to check out our list of game release dates in 2020.
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne (PC) — January 9
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Following its release on PS4 and Xbox One back in September, Monster Hunter World‘s big Iceborne expansion finally arrives on PC on January 9. This expansion takes players to an arctic region known as Hoarfrost Reach, which is home to a diverse array of new and returning monsters to hunt, not to mention a wealth of new gear to craft and quests to take on. The PC version of Iceborne also boasts high-resolution texture pack support, 4K and an uncapped framerate, support for ultra-wide screens, improved mouse and keyboard controls, and more.
Further reading:
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot (PS4, Xbox One, PC) — January 17
Bandai Namco’s new Dragon Ball action-RPG, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, arrives on PS4, Xbox One, and PC on January 17. The title is a retelling of the entire Dragon Ball Z series, encompassing all of the major story arcs and even some of the anime’s filler material, such as the famous driving test episode. And despite the title, Goku won’t be the only playable character; you’ll also take control of Gohan, Vegeta, future Trunks, and the fused warrior Vegito throughout the course of the adventure. The game even introduces a brand-new character named Bonyu, who was designed by series creator Akira Toriyama.
Further reading:
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore (Switch) — January 17
Launching alongside Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is Tokyo Mirage Sessions Encore, an enhanced Switch port of the 2015 Wii U RPG. A crossover between the Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei series, Tokyo Mirage Sessions follows a group of teens who must command Mirages–reimagined Fire Emblem heroes–in order to stop otherworldly invaders from draining Tokyo of a creative energy called Performa. The Switch edition includes the base game and all of the downloadable content released for the Wii U version, along with some new content in the form of additional story elements, characters, and songs.
Further reading:
Warcraft III: Reforged (PC) — January 28
Capping off the month is Warcraft III: Reforged, which launches on PC on January 28. A complete remaster of Blizzard’s beloved real-time strategy game, Warcraft III, and its Frozen Throne expansion, Reforged features completely overhauled visuals and a host of other changes, such as improved social and matchmaking features, “rebalanced” online play, and more. The standard edition of the game retails for $30, while the Spoils of War edition runs for $40 and includes a variety of in-game bonuses for Reforged and other Blizzard titles.
Visual concept artist and cyberpunk pioneer Syd Mead has passed away at the age of 86.
Known for creating the unique and dazzling worlds behind Blade Runner, Aliens, Tron, and countless other watershed sci-fi projects (including Johnny 5 from Short Circuit!), Mead designed some of the most iconic cinematic images of all time.
Mead kept busy through the decades, working as a conceptual artist on everything from Star Trek the Motion Picture and 2010 to ’90s fare like Johnny Mnemonic and Strange Days. Even more recently, Mead lent his gifts to Elysium, Tomorrowland, and Blade Runner 2049 (where he designed the future Las Vegas).
The news of Mead’s passing reportedly came from John McElroy of Autoline, who’d previously interviewed Mead on his podcast. Twitter is filled today with loving memories of Mead and heartfelt tributes to his talents…
Upgrading the Sundial obelisks scattered around the solar system is a big part of the Season of Dawn, Destiny 2‘s current content season. You’ll need to complete bounties from each of the obelisks and Saint-14 to earn the materials you need for the upgrades, but doing so increases your rewards significantly throughout the season.
In order to upgrade the obelisks, you’ll need to visit and interact with each one. But many players have reported issues with the obelisk in the EDZ. Walk up to it, and you might find that there’s no prompt to interact with the obelisk’s control panel, and therefore no way to spend the Polarized Fractaline materials needed for the upgrade. As Bungie has noted, the obelisk is bugged, and it can seem like your progress in the season is stalled if you don’t know what to do about it.
Fortunately, there’s a workaround. Apparently, the obelisk’s issue has to do with the requirement to unlock it in the first place–you need to complete a mission in the EDZ in order to power up the obelisk and make it work. Unlike other obelisks in the solar system, though, the EDZ one isn’t just checking if you have completed the requirements; if anybody in your instance hasn’t activated it, it won’t give anyone the prompt to interact with it.
Bungie suggests repeatedly spawning in at a different transmat location and then returning to the EDZ obelisk, which is located in the EDZ’s Gulch section. The idea is that you can try to enter the area over and over, in hopes of finding an instance in which everyone has activated the obelisk. It can be time-consuming, but eventually, it should work.
That method works if you’re on PC, although it can be annoying. If you’re a console Destiny 2 player, however, you have an easier method. While your character is in orbit, go into your console’s Settings menu and adjust the date and time, picking any day in the past. Once that’s done, spawn in at the Gulch transmat zone and head to the obelisk. You should now be in an empty instance, having tricked Destiny 2 into thinking you’re playing at a different time than everyone else. With nobody around, the obelisk should work.
That’s still a bit of a pain, but we’ve found altering the console’s date makes the obelisk work every time. Bungie hasn’t said when it’ll get a fix together for the obelisk, unfortunately, so be prepared to put in a little extra effort to advance your way through the Season of Dawn’s requirements.
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As with every holiday season, it’s been a busy few months for deals as stores and publishers compete to offer appealing prices on games, consoles, and accessories. But the hectic shopping season is finally coming to an end, which means retailers are now clearing out their leftover stock at low prices. So while it may be too late to pick up a gift for that special someone, there’s still time to snag something on your personal wishlist at a nice discount.
Amazon’s massive year-end sale has replaced its Christmas sale, and with it come thousands of deals across categories like electronics, movies and TV, headphones, and, of course, gaming. While many of the best deals were offered earlier this month, Amazon is still discounting quite a few games. As usual, some of the best prices are for PS4 and Xbox One games, but PC and Switch gamers still have some nice options as well. One of the standouts is Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for just $33.74 (full discount shown at checkout). You can also find Gears 5 for just $25, The Outer Worlds for $40, and NBA 2K20 for $30. Some first-party Switch games like Super Mario Maker 2 are $10 off, which is about the cheapest you’ll find them outside major sales like Black Friday and Prime Day.
Speaking of Black Friday: If you missed out on the popular PS4 Slim bundle that comes with God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition, and The Last of Us Remastered, you can still find it in stock at Amazon for a discount, although not quite as cheap as it was in November. The bundle is currently selling for $249, down from $300. The Xbox One S All-Digital Edition is also discounted to $172.90, down from its usual $250. And while Nintendo Switch deals are unsurprisingly nowhere to be seen at this point, you can snag a Switch Pro Controller for just $55, an excellent purchase if you got a new Switch for Christmas.
Check out some of the best post-Christmas gaming deals at Amazon below. You can also see more year-end deals across other categories at Amazon.
Talk about the big business battles of the video games industry, and it’s tough not to focus on the wars between gaming consoles. In the 1990s, SEGA and Nintendo were engrossed in a public, often odious back-and-forth banter in an attempt to grab hold of the majority market share of the gaming industry. In 2019, the big console makers are still duking it out for dominance, but there’s another battle taking place. This war is being waged for control of the PC gaming market.
Created and released by Valve in 2003, Steam was designed to be a digital platform that would allow Valve to push automatic updates to some of its online games, like Counter-Strike. After realizing the potential of its platform, Valve kept evolving Steam, and by 2005, it was set to sell its first third-party game on PC.
As the years went on, Steam continued to increase its influence over the PC game distribution market, surviving any competition that dared to try and take it down. In 2017, Steam had earned Valve an estimated $4.5 billion dollars, up almost $1 billion dollars from 2016’s figure, according to the third-party analytical firm Steam Spy. Up until this point, Steam had come to dominate the PC gaming market and outlasted any competition that dared to stand in its way, simply because it held so much of the market share. (It’s worth noting that this is excluding first-party PC distribution platforms like Uplay or EA Origin, as these platforms tend to only distribute their own games.)
However, in the past year, a formidable competitor has entered the ring and it’s looking to disrupt the hold that Steam has had on the PC gaming market for almost two decades. The Epic Games Store was launched in December 2018, promising a much larger revenue share for developers than that of Steam. Despite being launched by the parent company of the Unreal Engine and Fortnite, most didn’t expect the Epic Games Store to shake things up in the way that it has so far. After all, Steam has gone virtually uncontested for almost 20 years, so why should things be any different now?
Within months, the Epic Games Store started picking up a handful of notable PC exclusivity deals for games like Borderlands 3, World War Z, Super Meat Boy Forever, and many more. The most logical reason that dozens of publishers and developers began flocking to the Epic Games Store had to do with its generous revenue share. Epic offers all developers an 88% cut of all sales on the Epic Games Store, with the store taking 12% of sales. Steam, by contrast, offers most developers a 70% cut and keeps 30%, with bigger games having the chance to earn up to 80% revenue share.
Exclusives are deals between developers or publishers and a digital storefront, making that store the sole distributor of an intellectual property (IP), usually for a set amount of time. In exchange for exclusivity, Epic (and other distribution platforms) will typically offer the developers a sum of money, as well as an agreed-upon revenue share and a handful of other perks, which will vary based on the distributor.
“…I am glad someone is coming along and going, ‘Maybe we can give more back to developers.'”
You might be wondering why developers don’t distribute games themselves, especially when they have to give up a portion of sales. The short and simple answer is that most developers simply don’t have the audience, and potentially finances, to launch a game alone.
Digital storefronts like Steam and the Epic Games Store already have millions of active users looking to buy games from its platform. So, if they want their game to be seen and played, they are forced to launch with a digital distributor, and potentially sign an exclusivity deal. Thus, it’s critical to find a partner who will offer the best return to developers, which is why there has been an increase in Epic Games Store exclusives.
“Epic Games Store’s 88/12 split is very generous and I do think that’s a large draw for developers,” Tommy Refenes, co-CEO and programmer at Team Meat, the developers of Super Meat Boy Forever, told GameSpot. “Steam’s 70/30 cut has always been great and I have benefited greatly from it, but I am glad someone is coming along and going, ‘Maybe we can give more back to developers.’ That’s not something I ever thought would happen.”
Refenes was very clear that Team Meat saw great benefits with Steam, but found even more success upon partnering with Epic. “When Epic approached me, they offered me a deal that gave me more support than I’ve ever had from any deal with any store or console ever,” Refenes told GameSpot.
It also seems that Team Meat is not the only one who has benefited financially from a deal with Epic. “Releasing World War Z on the Epic Store was probably the best move that Saber has ever made as a studio,” according to Matthew Karch, the CEO of Saber, which recently launched World War Z on PC as an Epic Games Store exclusive. “We make more money on Epic than on any other platform by a huge margin,” adds Karch.
According to these developers and others, the support Epic offers goes far beyond finances as well. “…Most importantly was the level of support Epic Games offers its partners,” Nick Clifford, director of marketing at Phoenix Labs, told GameSpot. The studio launched Dauntless as an Epic Games Store exclusive in May 2019.
“We have an open line of communication with their team, talk daily, and share best practices. We’ve been out to their offices multiple times and they’ve visited us as well,” said Clifford.
“The guys at Epic are very accessible and pragmatic, it’s not a big business corporation with ties, long communication, and various approval levels, no, they have both feet on the ground and they are gamers like us,” said Henning Schmid, a representative for Yager, who recently released The Cycle as an Epic Games Store exclusive. “Frankly, I don’t see any disadvantages to being on the Epic Games Store from a development studio perspective… We wouldn’t have been able to release our vision of The Cycle without Epic and their help.”
In addition to studios profiting from Epic exclusivity deals, players are receiving benefits as well. With sales on Epic eclipsing that of the Xbox and PlayStation Store at Saber, Karch shared that they have been able to pass along some of those savings to “gamers.” “We actually lowered the price of World War Z by about five bucks on PC, to pass along savings to gamers because of Epic Games Store’s smaller cut.”
With Saber’s deal, aside from being able to offer the game for a discount on PC, Karch said the exclusivity deal has allowed the studio to have financial stability and confidence to make the best game possible for its community.
The idea that Epic Games Stores exclusives benefit the gaming community as a whole is a foreign idea to many. To a lot of the community, exclusives are an annoyance that exist because of greedy developers and publishers. However, Karch has a different viewpoint. “Epic is not some outsider to games, nor is it a greedy corporate publisher,” he said. “It’s a game developer with an unimpeachable pedigree.”
It’s hard to say exactly where the bias for exclusives began, but a lot of initial hate came from the fact that Epic’s platform isn’t as developed or advanced as Steam. As a newer platform, it is lacking a lot of features that its competition already has in place. After all, Steam has been around for nearly two decades, so to say that its platform has been tweaked and fine-tuned almost to perfection would be more than fair.
It shouldn’t really come as a surprise that those on PC would rather use Steam instead of Epic, as it simply is more user-friendly and already has an established user base. “Some community members complained about our decision [to release as an Epic Games Store exclusive] as they are used to a rich feature setup like Steam, but most of them simply don’t care. Knowing the ambitions of Epic, I am sure that they will catch up in the future,” said Schmid.
He is right, Epic has addressed some of the complaints from users since launch, and is continuing to add in new features. While Epic is trying to catch up to Steam, it’s certainly understandable that some users would prefer to play on Steam in the meantime. However, Schmid suggested that “most simply don’t care,” so if the lack of features on the Epic Games Store isn’t a problem for most, what else could it be?
Perhaps the biggest issue that consumers have with the Epic Games Store boils down to one simple word: change. The Epic Store is trying to shake up the world of PC gaming. It is trying to come along and disrupt the status quo. If we are being honest, buying a game off of the Epic Store versus Steam only involves a few extra clicks and maybe five minutes of your time. It’s not that big of a deal–but it is a big change.
There has never been a real threat to Steam in the past. Sure other PC gaming distribution stores have popped up over the years, but none of them have ever disrupted the community this much. The Epic Store isn’t just picking up exclusivity for a few tiny games and helping out indie developers here and there, it is coming after AAA and indie developers alike. Change is hard and often times scary, but sometimes it’s necessary for a better future. Epic believes it is creating a better future for gaming, but the verdict is still out.
Passionate fans are often very vocal when they feel betrayed by a company, which is what tends to happen when exclusivity deals are made. Often times the “bad press” is due to a lack of communication on the part of developers, leaving the community alienated from the reasons behind the decisions that were made.
“Unlike other Epic Games Store exclusive games, we did not get a lot of negative feedback [from the community], as our players knew where we came from and that this exclusivity helps us to turn our vision for The Cycle into reality,” said Schmid. “We spoke very open and transparently with our community and they fully understood our decision.”
Aside from the support Epic offers developers, Epic also offers a more limited library, which allows games to stand out better than they would if the storefront is constantly being flooded with new games. It’s no secret that Steam is the best place to go if you’re looking for a large library of games. However, with that comes the chance that a developer’s game could get lost in the shuffle.
“I feel like I’m working with a partner to launch my game and not like I’m just going to put the game out there and hope for the best. That’s huge in this market where there are new games coming out every single day. I don’t feel that once we launch on the Epic Games Store that we will be buried under a ton of new releases. We are going to be front and center in front of millions and millions of customers for a while. That’s huge,” said Refenes.
However, is that the case for all developers? What about the big studio that already has as much social support as needed? Do Epic Games Store exclusives benefit them as well?
“If developers have enough funding and resources available to finance and grow its games and business, they probably will be better off if it is not limited to only one platform,” Patrick Rose, the founder of Games Analyst, told GameSpot.
Rose told us that there are three things that a studio must determine when trying to decide if an exclusivity deal is the right move for its game. To start, developers need to first understand its products. Once a studio has figured out exactly what kind of product it wants to release, the focus should be turned to the market. This phase is where the developers must decide who its target audience is.
“The internet is fantastic at painting a negative picture and terrible at painting a realistic one.”
Once those two initial questions have been answered, it’s time to figure out where that audience is located. Are they on consoles? Steam? Epic?
This step is perhaps the most important of all. At this point, developers have already narrowed down who they want to sell their games to, but they must now accurately determine where the audience is located. Making the wrong choice here could be detrimental to any game, no matter the size of the studio behind it. At the end of the day, it simply comes down to what’s best for the game. Contrary to popular belief, size doesn’t matter.
After talking with Team Meat, Yager, Phoenix Labs, and Saber Interactive, it seems that at least in the case of these four studios, choosing to become an Epic Games Store exclusive was the right move. Not only did all four developers speak highly of Epic as a company, but they all shared similar experiences of financial stability, profitability, and ultimately freedom.
While exclusives may be an annoyance to some in the video game industry, the good seems to far outweigh the bad for developers and the community at large. Despite what the internet may tell you, exclusives are a necessary and good thing for developers and the community as a whole. As Refenes told us, “The internet is fantastic at painting a negative picture and terrible at painting a realistic one.” Signing an exclusivity deal with the Epic Games Store not only leads to major funding boosts, but also support, experience, and exposure that otherwise wouldn’t exist for many development teams.
These titles are ranked by how many people watched at least two minutes of the movie or TV series during the first 28 days of release. For the shows and movies that haven’t been out for 28 days, Variety says that Netflix estimates how many total viewers will have watched at least two minutes by the full 28 days based on early viewership data from the first few days of release.
With 2019 coming to a close and awards season in full steam, let’s look back at all the films that have wowed us so far this year.
IGN rates movies on a scale of 0-10. On this scale, any film rated 9.0-9.9 is considered “amazing” and anything that gets the coveted 10 rating is declared a “masterpiece”.
And we don’t give out 10s to just anything, either. In fact, not one motion picture has earned a 10/10 rating from us so far this year.
But listed below are all the films — released theatrically between January and now — that our team of critics have ranked an 8.0 or higher.
Click the links to their reviews to find out more about why we scored them as we did, and then be sure to tell us what your favorite films of 2019 are in the comments below!
Today’s spotlight deal is the excellent Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for both PS4 and Xbox One for $33.74. This game normally sells for $60 and was $45 on Black Friday, so you’re getting a better deal here. There are also more Nintendo Switch video games on sale, as well as a big price drop on the Sega Genesis Classic.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for $33.74
Get this game for far less than what it was on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Jedi: Fallen Order is the best Star Wars game in recent history It shouldn’t come as any surprise, since Respawn (Titanfall, Apex Legends) is the studio that developed it. The story is engaging with plenty of twists and turns, the protagonist and supporting cast are well fleshed out, the graphics and art direction are exemplary, the sound is authentic Star Wars, and the gameplay is fun, varied, and quite challenging if you choose the harder difficulty modes.
