The DC/Milestone Comics character Static Shock is on its way to the big screen, with Michael B. Jordan producing. During a recent interview with Collider, Jordan revealed Randy McKinnon (Chambers, Grand Army) is working on a draft currently.
Jordan said he was excited about working on the upcoming project during the interview. “As a kid growing up, watching Static Shock, it was something that inspired me,” Jordan told Collider. “And had that type of representation at a young age, it was really important to me. And I know it would be important to a lot of other kids today. So to be able to adapt the live-action version of that, I’m really, really excited about. So no real timelines, and I guess no real updates or anything like that. But we’re in the process of building that out.”
The actor/producer went on to say he’s excited to have more to reveal at a later date.
The Static Shock character made his debut back in 1993 at DC Comics under the Milestone Comics banner. The character was created by Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, Derek T. Dingle, and Dwayne McDuffie.
The story follows teenager Virgil Hawkins, a boy who had been bullied by a gang member. During a battle between all the gangs in the city of Dakota, Hawkins showed up hoping to get some sort of revenge. However, police show up and tear gas the crowd with a tracking device so no one would escape arrest. However this tracking device was radioactive and Quantum Juice in it–a mutagen–and those who were exposed to this gained superpowers. Hawkins gained the ability to control electromagnetism, going by the name Static.
The character is most known for the Static Shock animated series, which aired in 2000 on Kids’ WB for four seasons. While the beloved cartoon is no longer on TV, every episode is available to stream on HBO Max. The stream service continues to grow, adding movies like Tenet for the month of May. As for Jordan, he’s currently starring in the Amazon Prime Video original Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, which is the origin story of John Clark.
Miniature retro consoles have been all the rage over the past few years, with Nintendo, SEGA, and Sony releasing micro-sized replicas of some of their most iconic retro gaming consoles. Filled with a small catalog of pre-loaded games, these offer a great way to replay games from your childhood, or experience classics for the first time. But, what if you already have a large collection of retro games and you’re looking for a more modern way to play them? That’s where Hyperkin’s Retron Sq comes in.
Built specifically for GameBoy, GameBoy Color, and (most) GameBoy Advance games, this small cube-shaped box allows you to play those handheld games on the big screen with relative ease – assuming you have a worthwhile collection to take advantage of.
The Retron Sq is a small, handheld box that’s just as much a delight to look at as it is to hold. Built from a lightweight, transparent plastic, it instantly evokes 90’s nostalgia, harkening back to an era when almost every Nintendo peripheral had a similar look. Fans of the retrowave aesthetic will further appreciate the Hyper Beach colorway, which features transparent teal plastic and magenta accent buttons on the front.
The plug-and-play nature of the Retron Sq is where it really shines. It features a single slot on the top that’s compatible with GameBoy, GameBoy Color, and GameBoy Advance cartridges, and inserting games has a familiar satisfying click. On the front are two large, circular buttons: one for power and one to reset the unit. Below that is a single USB port for the included controller, or for a wireless receiver paired with one of Hyperkin’s bluetooth controllers (sold separately). Unfortunately, it’s only compatible with Hyperkin’s own controllers, which means plugging in a Xbox Core Controller or DualSense or another third-party controller is a no-go.
On the rear is a USB-C port for power, a microSD card slot that contains the system’s software and will allow you to update the firmware in the future. Thankfully, it connects to your gaming TV or gaming monitor with HDMI, allowing you to use it with modern displays. Games are displayed in their original 4:3 format, however, there’s also a switch on the back that lets you toggle to a widescreen 16:9 format, if you prefer. To round it out, there are four small rubberized “feet” on the bottom that prevent the unit from sliding or scratching whatever surface it’s placed on.
The included controller is made from the same transparent plastic and perfectly compliments the main unit. It’s modeled after an SNES controller, featuring a D-pad, four face buttons, L/R shoulder buttons, as well as start and select buttons in the center. While it’s certainly a familiar and comfortable format, it’s an odd choice given that GameBoy and GameBoy Advance games only ever use two face buttons.
While the design is largely the same as an SNES controller in shape and size, it does feature one key difference. On the back of the controller are two small protruding plastic grips that give your fingers something to latch onto, and are much more comfortable than the flat back of a traditional SNES controller. It also has a long 10-foot cable, allowing you to sit back and relax while you play instead of having to sit just feet from your television.
Hyperkin Retron Sq – Software
The Retron Sq is different from other micro consoles in that it doesn’t come pre-loaded with a selection of games. Instead, it relies on you having an existing library of games to choose from. While this is no different from modern consoles, or gaming in general, finding specific GameBoy or GameBoy Advance games these days can prove difficult – and costly. So while the console itself is relatively inexpensive to get into, the games themselves may prove to be a more expensive barrier to entry.
That being said, there is a bit of software built into the Retron Sq, but only what’s required to run the unit. However, beyond a simple Hyperkin-branded splash screen upon startup, it’s largely something you’ll never interact with.
According to Hyperkin, future firmware updates will be delivered through the included microSD card. This will require inserting it into a computer, but shouldn’t prove to be a difficult process otherwise.
Hyperkin Retron Sq – Gaming
Playing actual games couldn’t be more straightforward. Simply insert your cartridge, press power, and your game will begin running automatically. Officially, the Retron Sq supports GameBoy and GameBoy Color games out of the box, while GameBoy Advance games are currently still in beta. Out of 20 games tested, 18 games worked without any input delay or audio/visual issues. The two in question were both GameBoy Advance games – Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and WarioWare: Twisted! – and it’s possible they aren’t currently supported in beta. The latter technically ran, but due to its unique gyro sensor built into the cartridge, I was unable to control it. (Yes, I even tried holding the Retron Sq unit and spinning it around, but to no avail.)
For what is essentially a modern GameBoy Player, though, it’s concerning that games don’t start instantaneously like they do on their handheld counterparts. Instead, you’re greeted with a Hyperkin-branded splash screen upon each boot that lasts for about 15-25 seconds before the game actually loads. Even worse, if you’re inserting a cartridge for the first time, there’s an additional loading screen with a progress bar that lasts for another 10-15 seconds. Add in the splash screens from the actual game itself and sometimes it’s upwards of a minute before you’re actually playing something. While this isn’t terrible by any means, it is worth noting if you’re planning to quickly hop between games.
Games are displayed in 720p and default to their original 4:3 standard format. Even playing on a 4K TV, pixels were sharp and colors were vivid, and it’s surprising how many games still hold up today. Audio was crisp, and hearing so many chiptune soundtracks from my childhood was a delight. That said, the audio from some games can be a bit jarring when heard on large surround sound systems.
As for the controller itself, the D-pad is responsive and feels good to press, although when compared to a SNES controller it doesn’t feel quite as tight. That said, each directional input ends with a satisfying click, giving you an audible cue that you’ve reached the bottom. The four face buttons feel good, too, each responding to inputs instantly and springing back up quickly after being pressed. The A/B buttons feature a convex design, while X/Y are concave – once again taking cues from the SNES’s controller layout. Even though the GameBoy and GameBoy Advance didn’t have X/Y buttons, they can be used interchangeably with A/B, depending on your preference. The L/R shoulder buttons feel a bit lower profile than usual, but still have a satisfying click when pressed. The diagonal pill-shaped start and select buttons on the face are made from a soft plastic and feel solid overall.
According to director Morimasa Sato, the development of Resident Evil Village started on August 8, 2016. For the 8th main entry in the series, that’s an interesting date for sure (8/8/16!), but the real surprise lies in the fact that this was almost six months BEFORE the release of Resident Evil 7.
“We were still busy developing Resident Evil 7, but my boss told me to start planning for the next entry in the series,” recalls Sato, who was also the director for Resident Evil 7. “At the time, we had no idea how users would react towards the new horror experience and characters of 7 yet.”
Resident Evil 7 took the series back to its survival horror roots, but it was much more than a simple throwback. As the first mainline entry played from a first-person perspective, it was seen as a fresh start for the franchise.
“We had no idea how the change of perspective would be received, so at first we were quite worried. But when we released Resident Evil 7 about half a year after the development of Village started, it was received very well. This helped us decide to make Village a direct sequel,” Sato says.
After seeing the success of Resident Evil 7, Sato decided to have protagonist Ethan Winters make a return as the hero in Village, and kept the first-person perspective.
“As the original creator of Ethan, Sato really wanted to bring this character’s story to completion,” says producer Tsuyoshi Kanda.
“If you look back, you can see that Resident Evil’s systems have drastically changed after every three titles. In that sense, Resident Evil 7 was a title that came with some big changes,” says Kanda. “For us, it was a sincere attempt to deliver a true horror experience once more, focusing on an experience played in first-person. In the process, we brought Ethan to life.”
While Sato initially imagined that it would be more difficult to depict a main character in first-person, he became more and more attached to the character. In Village, he wanted to take this further, and show how Ethan has grown as a person.
“After somehow surviving the events of Resident Evil 7, Ethan and his wife Mia gave birth to Rosemary, their daughter. They were living a quiet life together, but then suddenly Chris Redfield – a familiar character for fans of the series – appeared, killed Mia and took Rosemary away. The game starts with Ethan making his way to the village to save his daughter. While Ethan was just a young man who had somehow found himself in this house of maniacs in Resident Evil 7, this time I wanted to portray him as a father,” Sato explains.
Kanda adds that family functioned as a theme for Village’s story, to which Sato nods. With the Baker family as the main villains in Resident Evil 7, family was an important theme in that game as well, but this time Ethan will be protecting his own family.
While Village is indeed a direct sequel to Resident Evil 7, Kanda and Sato say it’s much more than that. Sato explains that during the planning phases, he had already come up with the idea of a village as the game’s location, and that he was inspired by Resident Evil 4.
“If Resident Evil 7 was like a reboot that inherited the DNA of the original Resident Evil, then you could say that this time we’re doing the same for Resident Evil 4,” Kanda says. “We’ve designed the game and its structure with Resident Evil 4’s essence in mind, so I think that you’ll be able to find a lot of elements that remind you of that game.”
“In the history of the series, I believe that Resident Evil 4 is where the action and combat evolved the most,” Sato explains. “Interestingly, Resident Evil 4 was also set in a village. For Resident Evil Village, we’re bringing the essence of Resident Evil 4, while Resident Evil 7 functions as the base for the game. It’s not a reboot of Resident Evil 4, but the offspring of both Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil 4.”
If Village succeeds in combining the horror of Resident Evil 7 and the action of Resident Evil 4, it might become one of the most beloved entries in the series – but these two elements could also stand in each other’s way. If being haunted by the Baker family was frightening because you felt so weak, won’t a more action-focused approach disrupt the balance of that experience?
“That is indeed something we need to be very careful with,” Sato admits. “If you increase the action, it quickly turns into a game that allows you to kill enemy after enemy. That is not what I want. It’s important that the player constantly feels afraid of the enemies, and the experience should be all about overcoming that fear.”
Sato says that he believes that resource management – a traditional feature of the series – will prevent the action from diminishing the sense of fear. Conserving bullets and health items, being forced to advance to dangerous areas to stock up on supplies and wisely using items at the right moment all contribute to that traditional survival horror experience. For this, Sato used the 2018 Resident Evil 2 remake as a reference, which he sees as a perfect example of well-balanced survival horror.
Kanda says that for Village, the team didn’t just want to create a scary horror game. While Resident Evil 7 satisfied fans of the genre, some players found it too scary to even play. For Village, the team went for an experience that is still scary, but in a way that more players can enjoy. To achieve this goal, they came up with two key phrases that would shape Village’s identity: “a theme park of horror” and “ultimate survival horror”.
A horror theme park that’s yours to explore
The village that you will be exploring is much more than just a collection of streets and houses. The player will be discovering four different areas surrounding the village, with one of four Lords (the game’s main villains) awaiting the player in each area. From a gothic castle with a giant countess to a reservoir area ruled by a merman-like creature, the variety of characters and locations shape what Capcom calls “a theme park of horror”.
“By implementing a wide array of horror elements within one game, Village is not only one of the most voluminous entries in the franchise; it also offers different kinds of horror experiences within one package,” Kanda explains.
Sato says that this aim for variety was inspired by Resident Evil 4. By delivering variety in its scenarios, locations and gameplay, Resident Evil 4 managed to feel fresh until the end. For Village, Sato says that he sought to continuously create new experiences for the player.
“Also, when you think of the characters, I think that (Resident Evil 4’s) Ramon Salazar is the kind of character that everyone still remembers,” says Sato. “The appeal of a character like that is something very powerful, so we aimed to design characters with the potential to resonate with players like that. Seeing how well Lady Dimitrescu has been received made me confident that this had indeed been the right approach.”
While in size they’re quite the opposite, what Ramon Salazar and Lady Dimitrescu have in common is the fact that their appeal goes beyond pure creepiness. With such characters, Sato hopes to target a broader audience than just the typical horror fan. That being said, the element of horror definitely isn’t going anywhere.
“While aiming for a broader experience, I didn’t want to lower the game’s peak of fear,” Sato says. “Keeping the peak intact is essential, but if the game is tense throughout, it can become too much for certain players. That’s why we needed a change in pace, and included elements that afford the player a feeling of safety.”
With more freedom of exploration than in previous entries, the player can – to a certain extent – pace his or her own experience.
“The village is a more open and expansive location which the player can freely explore and get lost in,” says Sato. “As you play, you’ll gain access to more parts of the village. Making sure that the player knows where to go next in a larger environment is something we had to be really careful about. We consciously designed it so that you would see and notice the right things from the right locations.”
“If you give the player freedom in a wider area, it becomes easy to lose track of the next objective. On the other hand, if you guide the player too much, you lose that sense of freedom. We went through a lot of trial and error to get that balance right,” Kanda recalls.
While Resident Evil games have always had plenty of secrets, until now the series has offered more narrow and focused experiences. With more detours and optional elements, Village seems to be different.
“This is indeed one of Village’s newest evolutions,” Sato says. “We’ve prepared a more open environment, and basically we just tell the player to go and have fun with it, which is something Resident Evil hasn’t done before. While the main story still advances in what we think is the best order to experience it, it is totally possible to ignore the objectives and just get lost in the game’s world. There are many houses you can completely ignore, but as we feel it’s important to reward the player’s eagerness to explore, there will always be something interesting to discover. We really put a lot of effort into making Village’s exploration worthwhile.”
Sato believes that this freedom of exploration will create a different experience for each player, and hopes that it will become a reason to make players want to come back to the village again and again.
“The fact that Village has so many optional things to do makes it very different from previous installments in the series,” says Sato. “I’d almost go as far as to say that we prepared too many detours, so if you want to experience everything, it’s really going to take you a long time.”
On top of all that, the entirety of Village is explorable without coming across any loading screens, regardless of your platform of choice.
“For the PS5 and Xbox Series X, there’s no loading at all, as the area is completely connected. On the PS4 and Xbox One, the game is loading at certain points, but it’s always done in a way the player won’t notice, so you’ll be able to enjoy a seamless experience – like Resident Evil 7 was – on those platforms, too,” Sato assures us.
While it’s up to the player to decide how thoroughly to explore the village, systems have been created to stimulate and reward exploration, which connects to the game’s other main theme: “ultimate survival horror”.
Overcoming your fears
“By ‘ultimate survival horror’, we mean that this time you won’t just be experiencing fear like in the previous game; you’ll also have to find ways to overcome it,” Sato explains.
Just like in Resident Evil 7, Ethan is constantly hounded by terrifying creatures and characters, but Village offers more options in how to defeat them. “Giving the player more options means that we had to evolve the action,” says Sato. “This is where we really learned a lot from Resident Evil 4.” Sato and his team attempted to capture the essence of Resident Evil 4’s action, and then reworked it to suit Village’s first-person perspective.
“For example, you could block attacks in Resident Evil 7, but in Village you can block, then kick the opponent away, then follow up with a counterattack with your gun,” Sato explains. “The environments have more verticality as well, so the player can climb up rooftops or barricade themselves into a house. With some of Resident Evil 4’s staple elements adapted for a first-person view, the player can come up with more strategies and use the environments to their advantage.”
If you have played the demos released over the past couple of weeks, you probably noticed that Village’s enemies are tough. However, with the right strategy it becomes possible to defeat multiple enemies at once. But if even that doesn’t do the job, you can always upgrade your weapons or increase the stats of your character; another element that Resident Evil 7 didn’t have.
“We wanted to offer multiple ways to play the game, which is where weapon merchant The Duke plays an important role,” Sato says.
Resident Evil 4 also had a weapon merchant, and in similar fashion, The Duke allows you to buy weapons, ammo and health items, and to upgrade weapons. But that’s not all.
“This time, you’ll be able to increase Ethan’s own character stats,” says Sato. “Inside the village, you can find animals like chickens and pigs that have been left out in the open. By hunting those animals, you obtain ingredients, which can be brought to The Duke. He can then cook meals for you, which will increase your stats.”
You can increase stats like health and attack power through these meals, and these upgrades will remain throughout the game. Even if you don’t feel comfortable with Village’s first-person action elements, it should be possible to beat it by leveling up your character as you would in an RPG. That said, given Village’s intricate action systems, Sato hopes that players will enjoy trying out the wide array of available strategies.
“The amount of weapons available has increased, too,” he says. “Quickly switching from a handgun to a shotgun and then a sniper rifle within the same battle and figuring out which weapon is best for each moment should be a lot of fun.”
The village as a lead character
While Resident Evil Village primarily portrays Ethan’s story, Sato sees the village itself as the game’s second lead character.
He recalls that for Resident Evil 7’s visual presentation, the team set out to portray the filthy locations as beautifully as possible. This time, he went for the exact opposite: portraying the beautiful as something horrific. This can be said for the village itself, too.
“The traditional depiction of horror is dark, narrow and dirty. But there are plenty of horror movies with beautiful visuals that are scary at the same time,” Sato says. “I think that beauty and horror don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Castle Dimitrescu, for example, is gorgeous at first sight, laden with beautiful furniture. However, if you take a close look there might be something eerie lying on the table. When you see a patch of blood on an otherwise elegantly decorated wall, the beauty of the wall gives the blood a stronger impact.
“By adding a sense of beauty that wasn’t present in Resident Evil 7, I think we can make the presentation and atmosphere even more horrific.”
The main aspect of the village’s beauty has to be the snow. As a natural element that is often beautiful and terrifying at the same time, snow was the perfect choice for the theme of Village’s visual presentation. That being said, the village wasn’t covered in snow in its original design. Chance played a crucial role in what undoubtedly became the location’s most iconic characteristic.
“We went to a country in Eastern Europe for research during spring that year, but we encountered a record-breaking cold snap. We had to continue our research under -13°F conditions in the midst of a blizzard. I really thought we were going to die!” Sato recalls, laughing. “The circumstances were so extreme that our guide – a local – proposed we call it a day.”
Reminiscing on this trip, Sato says it completely reshaped his vision for what the village would look like – and without this extreme experience, the village would have been a different place.
“To this day, I still wonder what the village would have looked without it,” says Sato.
Given Sato’s original goal to portray both the horror in beauty, wouldn’t it be creepy if the cold snap was an act of fate?
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You can grab games like Jedi Fallen Order, Star Wars Squadrons, Star Wars Episode 1 Racer, and more with this Xbox Live sale.
May is coming, and that can only mean one thing: a bunch of Star Wars-related sales to celebrate the fan holiday “May the 4th.” Microsoft has jumped the blaster a little early this year so its Star Wars Day deals are already available, offering more discounts than you can shake a gaffi stick at.
If you happen to own an Xbox Series X|S now or plan to sometime soon, keep in mind that Jedi Fallen Order will be getting a free upgrade this summer. You can pick it up now for cheap and then be ready to see it with all the whizbang next-gen improvements.
Before Bungie agreed to a landmark publishing deal with Activision for the Destiny franchise, the studio considered signing with Microsoft or Sony for the franchise. Speaking to GamesBeat, former Bungie higher-up Martin O’Donnell said Bungie rejected the partnership opportunities with Microsoft and Sony because those companies apparently wanted to own the IP and this was a non-starter for Bungie.
Working with Activision allowed Bungie to retain ownership of the Destiny IP, and this was part of the reason why Bungie signed with the Call of Duty publisher, O’Donnell said. In his remarks, O’Donnell used air quotes when saying Activision “allowed” Bungie to own Destiny, alluding to the reportedly strained relationship between Bungie and Activision.
Former PlayStation Worldwide Studios boss Shawn Layden was also featured in the group interview, and he had a huge grin on his face as O’Donnell was sharing his story.
“We almost stayed with Microsoft. We almost went to Sony, believe it or not,” O’Donnell said. “Both Microsoft and Sony, and Shawn can probably confirm this, pretty much want to own the IP if they can. So Activision allowed us [air quotes] to own the IP, and how successful that turned out to be is a whole different thing.”
This is not the first time that O’Donnell has spoken about the early days of Destiny and why it chose Activision as the publisher. In 2020, O’Donnell remarked, “The reason why we went with Activision was not just the money, but it was because as part of the contract–they didn’t own the IP.” He confirmed back then that Bungie almost signed with Microsoft for Destiny, but this is seemingly the first time we’re hearing that Sony was also in the running.
O’Donnell said owning the Destiny IP was a “non-negotiable” item in discussions about potential publishing partnerships for the series.
“That was probably my biggest disappointment–we worked for a decade to make sure we could be in a position where we could stand up to the publisher and say, no, we own the IP–you can’t mess with it. And I was overruled and eventually let go,” he added.
O’Donnell also shared a juicy story about a dinner he had with Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick and a CFO that O’Donnell referred to as an Austrian man from the “Vienna School of Economics.” He never mentions a name, but Activision’s former CFO was Thomas Tippl, an Austrian man who was involved in the deal to sign Bungie for Destiny.
O’Donnell shared that he has a saying, “be nice to the goose,” which means you should be nice to the goose because that’s where golden eggs come from. In this analogy, Bungie is the goose that lays the golden egg that is Destiny. This unnamed Austrian business executive told O’Donnell, “Yeah, I like that story … golden eggs … the goose. But sometimes there’s nothing like a good Foie gras.”
Foie gras is the French cuisine that is made from goose liver after the bird is fattened by forced feeding. O’Donnell was spooked that Activision saw Bungie as a goose to be fattened and then killed off, and today he wishes he had raised concerns to his colleagues.
Bungie and Activision broke up in January 2019, with Bungie retaining ownership of the Destiny series and moving forward in a self-publishing capacity.
Greetings from The Big Boy Flapjack Squad. Cardy, Matt and Joe are back to unpack the gorgeous gameplay from the Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart State of Play this week as well as indulging in the gory delights of Mortal Kombat. But the blood explosions don’t stop there as early impressions of dino-blaster Second Extinction are shared alongside the ultra-violent Invincible. Excitement for Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story is also shared as Cardy can’t wait to bathe in the technicolour glory of it all.
Plus, the return of Chain Brain and of course, your feedback.
Remember, if you want to get in touch with the podcast, please do: [email protected].
Mass Effect Legendary Edition is out on May 14, and you can get the game for $10 off on Newegg, provided that you’re planning to play on Xbox. For remastered and reworked versions of three classic and extremely long role-playing games, it’s a very good deal. To take advantage of the savings, all you have to do is add Mass Effect Legendary Edition to your Newegg cart and then enter the code EMCEUTE35 when the promotional code box pops up. You’ll see the discount applied at checkout, confirming that $10 has been subtracted from your total.
Though the game is listed as both an Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S game, there isn’t a bespoke next-gen version, at least not yet. You should see better performance on the newer consoles, but the games were reworked for Xbox One first.
Alongside graphical improvements, Mass Effect Legendary Edition also provides a more unified combat system across the three games. In the original Mass Effect, the third-person shooting was stiffer than it was in its two sequels, but this should no longer be the case with the new collection. Making sure your character data and decisions carry between the games should also now be much easier, given that they’ll all be together.
The CEOs and other board members at CD Projekt are set to receive big, multi-million dollar bonuses this year, despite the difficult and problem-filled launch of Cyberpunk 2077.
CD Projekt co-CEOs, Marcin Iwiński and Adam Kiciński, are each set to get an end-of-year bonus of 24 million zloty (approx. $6.3 million), according to the company’s annual report.
Meanwhile CD Projekt board member and director of Cyberpunk 2077, Adam Badowski, is to be awarded $4.2 million in bonuses.
As explained in a new Bloomberg report, these bonuses come via CD Projekt’s profit share system, in which 20% of the company’s annual earnings is split up and awarded to staff members. 10% of profit is shared among the board of directors, while the other 10% goes to employees. In a statement to Bloomberg, CD Projekt explained that 865 employees were part of this profit share system, with $29.8 million shared among them. Meanwhile, five board members will share $28 million.
Talking to Bloomberg, some employees revealed that they were expected to receive between $5,000 and $9,000 in bonuses. More senior staff could get closer to $20,000. These do, naturally, pale in comparison to the multi-million dollar figures assigned to the board.
These kinds of figures are to be expected from a corporation, but they are called into question in the wake of CD Projekt’s disastrous launch of Cyberpunk 2077. The game, in development for years and eagerly awaited by fans, launched in a buggy state that was considered near unplayable on PlayStation 4. That led to a reported 30,000 refunds and Cyberpunk 2077 being removed from sale on the PlayStation Store.
By releasing Cyberpunk 2077 in its difficult state rather than waiting for it to be ‘complete’, CD Projekt suffered a steep stock price fall. Considering their disastrous decision, the board was asked during a recent investor call if it were “appropriate” that such large bonuses were awarded.
“We earned this money and the company earned this money, of course, but more net profits, more bonuses,” Kiciński said. “So well, we have results, we get bonuses, and that’s the contract we have.”
Uli Latukefu is currently playing the part of the college-aged Dwayne Johnson on the mega-star’s autobiographical sitcom Young Rock. In addition to playing The Rock, though, he’ll soon be acting alongside him in the upcoming DC Comics film Black Adam, according to Deadline.
Elsewhere, Latukefu is set to appear in Taika Waititi’s Next Goal Wins with Michael Fassbender and Elisabeth Moss, and just finished a film called Black Site. The Australian actor has appeared in a variety of TV shows and movies, but is best known in the United States for his roles in Alien: Covenant and Netflix’s Marco Polo.
