A self-described “casual engineer” has created a working Nintendo Switch that is 650% larger than normal. According to a Reddit post, Michael Pick created the very big Switch in order to donate it to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Tennessee.
As spotted by VGC, Pick documented the build process on his YouTube channel, and he also showed off how the comically oversized Joy-Cons actually work. He played a few rounds of Mario Kart before switching to Fortnite and claiming a Victory Royale.
The giant Switch consists of a television and a docked normal Switch that hides inside of the device’s housing. The oversized Joy-Cons are attached to levers that manipulate the real Joy-Cons when the large button is pressed. Pick also placed chargers in the mounts to ensure that they don’t run out of juice.
Since its launch in 2001, Xbox has always seemed to appeal to a very specific demographic–the bro demographic. Or, that’s at least how Kurt Indovina saw it. Over the years, Kurt has watched as the Xbox evolved from being the console that came pre-packaged with a headset encouraging players to talk smack to each other online, to the console intended for everyone, regardless of age, demographic, or accessibility requirements.
While Kurt never felt the Xbox was intended for him, all that has changed in recent years. In this video, he explains how the identity of Xbox has changed, starting from the system to play Halo and Gears of War on, to shifting its focus towards accessibility with the Adaptive Controller, and services like Game Pass.
Kurt also deconstructs the bro culture that surrounded Xbox, by looking back on the early 2000s, examining the documentation for terms like bromance, and how its popularization rose alongside bro-affiliated movies like American Pie and Van Wilder.
But since the launch of the modern Xbox Series X|S consoles, Microsoft has successfully turned its image around, drifting further and further from a niche demographic, to the one that wants you to play more games, with more people.
FunPlus’ free-to-play strategy game State of Survival is adding The Walking Dead’s Daryl Dixon as a new character. GameSpot can reveal today that Dixon–who is performed on the TV show and in the game by Norman Reedus–will be added to the game starting April 15.
He’s coming to the game as part of a special limited-time event through October. Dixon will be a playable character, and his canine companion dog from the TV show will be by his side as they try to survive against zombies.
Reedus is lending his voice and likeness to the game, which the actor announces himself in the video below.
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Norman Reedus Announces Walking Dead Collaboration With State Of Survival
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“We’re thrilled to partner with AMC and The Walking Dead to bring our two worlds together,” FunPlus executive Chris Petrovic said in a statement. Since launching State of Survival in August 2019, it has been our dream to allow players the opportunity to experience The Walking Dead in our game, and we’re excited to be able to deliver that to them.”
AMC Games boss Clayton Neuman said Dixon is one of the most famous and recognizable zombie universe characters overall, and he’s excited to bring Dixon to State of Survival.
“State of Survival and AMC’s The Walking Dead present different takes on the zombie apocalypse, but they also share a lot of common themes so bringing them together was very natural,” Neuman said. “What we’ve created allows the best elements of both universes to shine, and we’re excited for the millions of fans and players around the world to experience it.”
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The Walking Dead’s Daryl Dixon Comes To State Of Survival
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2020 was a big year for State of Survival. In its launch year, the game passed 60 million global downloads and was the top-downloaded game in Taiwan and South Korea across Google Play and the App Store. The game was also featured 104 times in 2020 as the Game of the Day on the App store.
AMC’s The Walking Dead remains very popular, and the shoe is coming back for its eleventh and final season this August as part of a 24-episode mammoth final season. Reedus’ Dixon character is one of the most popular on the show, so it’s no surprise that, even after The Walking Dead ends, his story will continue in a spin-off show.
In addition to crushing it at the box office, Godzilla vs. Kong is making an impact on HBO Max. The film debuted on the streaming service day-and-date with its theatrical release on March 31 in the US, and Warner Bros. has confirmed it broke records for the platform.
It was viewed more in its first four days than any other film or show since HBO Max released in May 2020, according to reporter Pamela McClintock. That means it tallied more views than Wonder Woman 1984, which debuted on HBO Max in December, and did better than March’s Snyder Cut of Justice League.
Warner Bros. did not, however, share a total number of streams for Godzilla vs. Kong. The company also did not reveal how many new subscribers it was able to sign up through the movie.
The next Microsoft virtual event has been set, but don’t expect it to house big gaming announcements. The Microsoft Build conference is an annual event aimed at software developers and engineers, and the company has set the dates at May 25-27.
Microsoft confirmed the dates to GameSpot sister site ZDNet following an appearance on a public events page, though it’s still not present on the dedicated Build event site. Registration details have not been shared yet.
Microsoft has been sticking with virtual events so far this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It is also planning a series of “What’s Next” virtual events that will focus more narrowly on particular areas of interest. A “What’s Next for Gaming” event is reportedly expected in the coming weeks as well, separate from the Build conference. GameSpot has contacted Microsoft regarding the events schedule.
This could be in addition to whatever Microsoft has planned surrounding E3 or other summer reveal events, which are still unconfirmed. The ESA has confirmed it is planning a digital show, and in response to reports that it would be charging a fee the company has confirmed it will be free, at least in part. More details are said to be coming soon.
Halo’s long history with esports will continue with Halo Infinite, and now the game’s first tournament has been teased. The franchise’s competitive gaming lead, Tashi, announced on Twitter that Microsoft just recently finalized a date and venue for the first Halo Infinite event in the Halo Championship Series.
Tashi didn’t share any further specifics, but more details will be announced this summer. Also, everything could change as a result of the pandemic, Tashi cautioned.
Recently locked in date & venue for first Halo Infinite @HCS event (assuming safe to attend by then) and it’s in 2021. Operated by none other than @EsportsEng. Details this Summer. See you there? I’m planning to have a great weekend, hope you are too. GLHF to everyone competing. pic.twitter.com/8kwxxygpRT
Microsoft has been planning Halo Infinite’s esports efforts for a very long time. Back in February 2020, when the game was still on track for release in 2020 and before the pandemic reached its height, Microsoft announced a huge deal with Esports Engine to run the Halo Championship Series.
As part of the deal, the Esports Engine team will work alongside Microsoft’s own Halo Championship Series team inside of developer 343 Industries. The two will collaborate on “ecosystem design, format and league operations, broadcasts, and more.”
Signed the biggest thing I’ve ever been a part of in my career. Vroom vroom 2021. (Yes, we are building a hover craft)
Adam Apicella, the head of Esports Engine, tweeted about the news in less direct terms. He teased, “Signed the biggest thing I’ve ever been a part of in my career. Vroom vroom 2021.” He joked about building a hover craft in the tweet as well.
Apicella also retweeted Tashi’s tweet about the Halo Infinite competitive gaming news, saying, “Let’s go!”
After a big delay, Halo Infinite is now slated to release this fall for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The multiplayer is getting a big shakeup as well, as Microsoft is making it free-to-play for everyone.
During the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure the Animation Special Event, it was confirmed that the series’ sixth season is in production and will look to adapt the Stone Ocean story arc from the Japanese manga series of the same name.
As reported by CBR.com, the anime design for the next JoJo, Jolyne Cujoh, was also revealed and can be seen in the poster below.
While no premiere date was given, a teaser trailer was shown that celebrates the history of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure while also teasing its exciting future with Jolyne.
Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon’s Ai Farouz will voice Jolyne, who is also the first female protagonist in the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure franchise.
Fairouz shared her excitement of her new role with fans, saying that Jojo is what inspired her to take on voice-acting as a profession.
“I cannot live without the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure series, and it is also what inspired me to take on voice-acting as a profession,” Fairouz said, as translated by Anime News Network. “So when I heard that I was going to be able to participate in the series, I was lost for words and surprised that “Even a Stand would be blown to the moon.” I cried so much as it was literally the moment my dream came true, which I have chased over for 12 years.
“I love and admire Jolyne as a character and her beautiful, strong nature gave me strength especially during my student years, so I am grateful for the opportunity to voice Jolyne.”
Halo: The Master Chief Collection‘s big Season 6 “Raven” update is coming this week, and now developer 343 Industries has clarified some important details about it.
This includes content that won’t be included in the update, such as the “Edge” map for Halo 3. This map was previously tested, but 343 is holding it back for now until it’s ready. That’s a bit of a bummer, but fans are still getting the new map Waterfall in Season 6. Both Edge and Waterfall come from the canceled free-to-play Halo Online game for Russia.
Gameplay footage from beta testers showed off the new Edge and Waterfall maps, and they both looked very impressive. They represent the first new DLC maps in more than a decade for Halo 3; fans are now only getting one, and only for Custom Games and not public matchmaking, but that’s still something to be excited about.
Another item that won’t launch with Season 6 is the long-awaited Custom Game Browser, which Microsoft previously said snowballed into a “crazy, huge complicated feature.” As a result, Microsoft is taking more time to get it ready for everyone.
Finally, the “View Model Offset” feature won’t make it into Season 6 at launch. This allows players to customize their view model. However, testing revealed that it was “not as robust as players had hoped,” so Microsoft is taking more time to address that feedback.
All three items could debut in MCC at some point in the future, either through another beta test or for everyone through an official update. “As we get closer to final with each feature and piece of content, we will make sure to shout from the rooftops when they are ready,” the developer said.
What’s more, 343 said players who are in the middle of seasonal challenges will want to complete them ASAP because Season 6’s release on April 7 will bring an end to Season 5.
343 also said mid-mission checkpoints and theater films are going to be impacted by the Season 6 launch, among other things. Mid-mission checkpoints for every game in Halo: MCC won’t work after the Season 6 update, which means players will need to start over. Additionally, all theater files that you made before Season 6 launches on April 7 will “become invalid,” 343 said.
“There is quite a bit of new content being added and various bug fixes require content rebuilds for this update. So please make sure to go in and record the videos you want before next Wednesday, April 7, when Season 6 and the MCC update are released!” 343 said.
Another important thing to note is that a “small subset” of players may notice their MCC matches now connect to different server regions. This is happening due to “some efficiency changes to our global infrastructure,” 343 said. “This should not result in noticeable changes to your game experience, but we wanted to give you a heads up since the server regions listed in the UI may change.” You can get around this if you want, as the game allows players to manually choose their preferred server region.
The Season 6 update for MCC also adds 100 tiers of new battle pass content for the game, along with a new feature called The Exchange. Check back soon with GameSpot for more, including the full patch notes, which should be published when the update goes live.
Three new Clash of Clans spin-offs are in development, mobile developer Supercell announced. In addition to continuing its support for the existing Clash games, the company debuted three more: Clash Quest, Clash Mini, and Clash Heroes.
In a blog post, the company outlined the three games. Clash Quest is an adventure strategy game that introduces massive bosses to the Clash franchise. The other two games are coming from Supercell Shanghai, a new studio founded in recent years. Those are Clash Mini, an auto-battler where you place “minis” on a chess-like grid, and Clash Heroes, a dungeon-crawler where you assemble a team of heroes.
The blog went on to note that these plans don’t impact development or support for existing Clash games, and that if the games don’t ultimately meet their standards they’re leaving the door open to killing the projects. The studio says it doesn’t usually share games that are this early in development but it wanted to start getting feedback from the Clash community. And it did note that it has other, non-Clash games in development as well.
“We want the community to know the different types of Clash games being worked on–these new games are nothing like prior Clash games,” the studio stated. “We want to focus on creating new ways of enjoying and playing with your favorite Clash characters, while deepening the world through new environments and gameplay experiences. That last part is key–we want to offer new ways of playing Clash and hope these games add on to your current gaming experience. Of course, there’s a chance you might not like these games–and that’s okay, it’s all good. We totally understand these are very different from Clash of Clans and Clash Royale. On top of offering a new Clash experience to current players, we want to broaden Clash to new audiences who haven’t experienced Clash before.”
While no premiere date was given, a teaser trailer was shown that celebrates the history of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure while also teasing its exciting future with Jolyne.