GameStop has laid out its future ambitions, and it’s not all about selling video games. The retailer said as part of its latest earnings release that it is taking steps to evolve to become a more general technology company. This won’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who has been to a GameStop store or visited the retailer’s website in the past few years, as the physical and virtual shelves are populated by plenty of non-gaming items like Funko Pops, clothing, general merchandise, electronics, and other products not strictly tied to gaming.
Still, GameStop is now putting it in writing that it no longer wants to position itself as a video game company first and foremost.
“GameStop has two long-term goals: delighting customers and delivering value for stockholders. We are evolving from a video game retailer to a technology company that connects customers with games, entertainment and a wide assortment of products,” the retailer said in a filing with the SEC (via Yahoo! Finance). “We are focused on offering vast product selection, competitive pricing and fast shipping–supported by high-touch customer service and a frictionless ecommerce and in-store experience.”
To realize its vision, GameStop is aiming to increase the size of its addressable market by “growing [its] product catalog” in areas like consumer electronics, collectibles, toys, and “other categories” that make sense for the business. GameStop is also looking to expand its fulfillment operations to help speed up delivery. It recently opened a massive facility in Pennsylvania and will open one in Nevada next year to support this plan.
What’s more, GameStop is looking to flesh out its technology capabilities by “investing in new systems, modernized ecommerce assets and an expanded, experienced talent base.” The retailer said it also plans to improve its US-based custom service capabilities.
Recently, GameStop has made headlines for its “meme stock” drama. Earlier this years, members of the WallStreetBets subreddit bought up stock as part of a short squeeze that propelled the stock price to new heights, and the stock continues to trade at around $200 per share, which is up from about $5 per share this time last year. GameStop’s leadership team is now changed significantly, too, with billionaire investor Ryan Cohen assembling a team of former Amazon executives and other key players from the technology world to run GameStop.
For the latest quarter, GameStop lost $63 million, but this was a big improvement over the deeper losses it suffered during the same period last year. And although GameStop is in the red on a profit basis, the company is making more money in revenue than before.
Queenpins is in select Cinemark Theaters nationwide on Sept. 10, then streaming on Paramount+ on Sept. 30.
There’s a couple of givens when it comes to a Kristen Bell comedy: she’s going to be funny, she’ll probably make you like her character, and the project is really going to fly if you don’t hold her back. In the case of Queenpins, she nails the first two, but writer/directors Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly throttle her in what should have been a zanier comedy, and then commit the cardinal sin of sidelining Bell in the third act.
Loosely based on a real 2012 Arizona case where three women were arrested for orchestrating the largest counterfeit coupon scam in U.S. history, Queenpins reframes those details by whittling down the players to two perpetrators: Connie (Bell) and her best friend JoJo (Kirby Howell-Baptiste). A former Olympic race walker, Connie is now stuck in the Phoenix suburbs, burying her miscarriage depression with obsessive couponing while barely existing next to her dour IRS auditor husband (Joel McHale). JoJo understands Connie’s plight, as she too is unhappy, living with her mom because of recent identity theft and trying to leverage YouTube to sell makeup and build a “brand” out of her current situation.
Both penny pinchers, they appreciate the ephemeral endorphin “win” of extreme couponing, but then they ratchet up the stakes. Connie figures out that she can get free vouchers from companies just for complaining. Soon, the pair has a side hustle selling the coupons for a profit via a janky website, eventually figuring out a way to access extra printed vouchers from a Mexican coupon clearing house, and it becomes a mega million-dollar operation.
Previously, Bell and Howell-Baptiste worked together on The Good Place, the Veronica Mars reboot, and at L.A. improv events, and that comes across strongly in their ease with one another, which is what initially pulls us into their orbit. They capably convince us that Connie and JoJo are competent underdogs, who kinda deserve to siphon away millions from the dumb conglomerates that nickel and dime average shoppers. Even JoJo’s former identity theft scammer (well-played by Bebe Rexha) takes pity on them.
A local grocery Loss Prevention Officer, Ken Miller (Paul Walter Hauser), serves as the perfect foil for the two ladies. A stickler for rules and coupon expiration dates, he’s positioned to be the balanced adversary to bring the whole thing down. But as the case escalates, Vince Vaughn is introduced as U.S. Postal Inspector Al Anderson, and that’s when the film really goes off the rails.
Suddenly, Ken becomes Al’s albatross as they investigate the evidence and circle up on the Phoenix-based operation. The women then disappear for large swaths of time while an annoyed Al — a Vaughn character staple — endures chatty plane rides and rental car stake-outs with Ken. All of their scenes drag on and on, and the odd couple comedy overstays its welcome.
They capably convince us that Connie and JoJo are competent underdogs.
All of that contributes to the third act really getting away from Gaudet and Pullapilly, which is extremely disappointing after a very tight and enjoyable first act. The engaging cat-and-mouse dynamic between the central duo and the Feds disappears, and the comedy isn’t allowed to bloom into the kind of excess Bell and Howell-Baptiste would have knocked out of the park. What could have been a sly black comedy about illegally gained empowerment and sticking it to the corporate man just wraps up like a bland sitcom. It’s an amusing ride, but it could have been a lot more.
Not only did a PlayStation showcase happen this week packed with God of War, Marvel and Star Wars games, but the long-awaited trailer for The Matrix Resurrections dropped as well. Cardy, Matt and Joe are here to talk all about them as well as all of the films and games they’ve been enjoying over the past week. There’s a lot, so buckle in for a long one.
Want to submit your own Endless Search, food opinion, or a bit of other nonsense? Feel free to get in touch with the podcast at: [email protected].
Scarlett Johansson’s lawsuit against Disney over Black Widow has been one of the most talked-about events in recent months, and now another MCU actor has weighed in. Doctor Strange actor Benedict Cumberbatch said in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he thinks it’s “sad what’s going on between the lawyers.” He specifically took issue with how the lawsuit has been wrapped up in the context of the pandemic.
“Just the verbiage and the accusations of, ‘Put it in a global pandemic context.’ The whole thing’s just a bit of a mess,” he said.
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Cumberbatch said the shift to simultaneous releases in theaters and on Disney+ With Premier Access is a “new paradigm.” He said it will take time to get to a place where artists can be paid fairly even if a movie’s box office numbers are lower than in pre-pandemic times.
“We’re trying to understand what the revenue streams should be for artists that contribute to the billion-dollar business that is Disney. And it has to be contractualized,” he said. “How does an artist’s normal compensation with box office bonuses, how does it work? It’s a new paradigm, and it’s a very complex one. No one saw this coming, and no one should use hindsight to say, ‘Well, it should have been done.’ [Black Widow] was the first of these films that was going to get a cinematic release during the pandemic and got stalled and stalled and stalled. It’s very new territory.”
Johnasson’s team sued Disney over claims that she is owed more money due to how Black Widow debuted simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ With Premier Access. Her team reportedly asked Disney for a $100 million payment, which included Johansson’s $20 million fee to be in the movie and $80 million for what her team argued would have been her share of the box office results. However, Disney reportedly never made a counteroffer, instead opting to pay Johansson her $20 million fee and nothing else. Johansson’s team then sued.
In response to the suit, Disney’s legal team said Johansson’s case has “no merit,” going on to say the lawsuit is “especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Whether or not Johansson makes any more MCU movies remains to be seen. She will appear in the next Wes Anderson movie, which is assembling a big cast that includes Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, and Margot Robbie.
Crash Bandicoot’s 25th-anniversary celebrations have officially kicked off, with Activision marking the occasion with a special Crashiversary bundle of the latest games and a teaser for the future of the franchise.
“Happy 25th anniversary, Crash, we’ll see more of you very soon,” Lodato said.
Whether those plans involve Crash Bandicoot 5 or more actors popping up in locations while dressed up as the jorts-wearing marsupial remains to be seen. Toys for Bob has transitioned to a support studio role for Call of Duty: Warzone, Activision’s popular battle royale spin-off from the main Call of Duty series. Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s about time was well-received when it landed on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2020, and since then the game has been ported over to Nintendo Switch, PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.
“Even more so than playing the N.Sane Trilogy, which literally remade the original Crash games from my youth, playing Crash 4 felt like getting back in touch with the series,” Mike Epstein wrote in GameSpot’s Crash 4: It’s About Time review. “It’s an injection of new ideas into now-classic gameplay that surprises and delights, even as it feels like a homecoming. Truly, games like this are why we come running back to long-dormant franchises with open arms.”
Few first-person shooter series have had the longevity of Far Cry, with a legacy going back more than 17 years and eight main titles released during that period–soon to be nine with the launch of Far Cry 6. It has also gone through some drastic changes and experiments over that time, ranging from the mutant enemies driving the plot of the original game to a return to the stone age in Far Cry Primal. Open-world chaos has been at the heart of Far Cry since the beginning, however, whether the game was set in the snowy Himalayas or the plains of Montana. We ranked the best Far Cry games from worst to best so you know which ones are must-plays and which ones are you-should-probably-still-plays.
8. Far Cry 5
Far Cry 5
One of the only real swing-and-misses in the Far Cry series–the dumpster fire crossover Trials of the Blood Dragon is the other–Far Cry 5 promises a memorable confrontation with a cult that has apparently strong-armed or seduced the population of rural Montana into joining. Head and self-professed prophet Joseph Seed just isn’t all that charismatic or compelling, nor are his siblings, and most of the game consists of doing quests to tick one of them off enough to confront you directly. There are still the typical Far Cry elements like dangerous animals and goofy side characters–and an excellent level-creation tool–but Far Cry 5 wrote a check it couldn’t cash, especially in its ridiculous (in a bad way) final hours.
Speaking of unique entries in the Far Cry series, the spin-off game Far Cry Primal certainly fits the bill–well, except for using the same basic layout as Far Cry 4 for its map. The game takes place in the Stone Age, replacing guns and explosives with spears, bows, and primitive handheld weapons. Despite this, it’s still very much a Far Cry game, with the wilderness and human enemies both posing real threats to your survival, and a mix of assault and stealth are often necessary to make it out alive. Heavily inspired by the drug-induced Shangri-La missions in Far Cry 4, we haven’t seen anything like Far Cry Primal from the series since, but it proves that history may be the best source for new games’ settings.
The only game in the mainline series not developed by Ubisoft, the original Far Cry is, well, a far cry from the later installments. It still retains the fish-out-of-water approach we see in so many of the later games, with Jack Carver finding himself stranded on an island and battling in a seemingly unwinnable war against mercenaries, but it also goes in a more science-fiction direction. The mutant-enemy elements present in the game was abandoned for follow-ups, though that does also make it unique enough to warrant a return trip more than 15 years after it first released.
A sequel to Far Cry 5–and one that feels significantly more cohesive–Far Cry: New Dawn sees the plains of Montana largely reclaimed by nature (and bandits) following a nuclear apocalypse. The game has quite a bit more flair and style than its predecessor, and while its antagonists aren’t as memorable as some of the other games, it has a knack for delivering short, fun side activities and never outstaying its welcome. The game takes place on the same basic map from Far Cry 5, but the aesthetic changes and additional locales you’ll visit during certain missions keep the game from feeling like a retread. A few clever tie-ins to the previous game also make it an essential follow-up, and one that makes Far Cry 5’s confusing ending more palatable.
A bit wackier than the typical Far Cry game–and that’s saying something, given the direction of the last few–Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is a parody and love letter to neon-soaked action movies of the 1980s. The bite-sized game doesn’t have the same scale as Far Cry 3 or most of the other entries, but playing as the ridiculously named Rex Colt and blasting everything in your path more than makes up for that. Even better? It stars Michael Biehn, who played Kyle Reese in the original two Terminator movies as well as Cpl. Hicks in Aliens. But to video game aficionados, he’s probably best known for being the very strong inspiration for the original Metal Gear’s American box art. Anyway, play Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon and skip its terrible pseudo-sequel, the crossover Trials of the Blood Dragon.
How do you follow up one of the most acclaimed first-person shooters of a generation? Well, largely by not messing with the formula. Far Cry 4 takes the action from a warm tropical island to a fictional war-torn Himalayan country, and ruler Pagan Min isn’t too happy that you’re there. The game maintains the structure of Far Cry 3–climbing towers to expand the map, clearing outposts, and hunting and gathering for upgrades–but it does manage to maintain its story’s momentum better than Far Cry 3 did. Still, Pagan Min isn’t as memorable as Vaas, nor did the game provide the same sense of surprise and discovery that Far Cry 3 did, though its unique competitive multiplayer mode and Shangri-La sequences did offer a nice bit of variety.
The most underappreciated entry in the series was the first mainline Far Cry developed by Ubisoft itself, as Crytek had been in charge of the original game. Far Cry 2 takes place in war-torn Africa rather than a bright and colorful tropical island, and you have malaria. If that doesn’t sound difficult enough to deal with, you’ll also have to worry about your weapons occasionally jamming, fires spreading and trapping you in a battle, and destructible environments rendering your cover useless. It’s an incredibly ambitious game, which is not a big surprise when considering that director Clint Hocking also led development on Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and the play-as-anyone sandbox Watch Dogs: Legion. It may have lacked a signature villain or the humor of later games, but it’s an impressive achievement nonetheless.
The most iconic game in the entire series and one that set the template for future installments, Far Cry 3 has it all. The tropical island setting is a joy to explore, with wildlife to hunt–and be hunted by–outposts to liberate, vehicles to joyride, and radio towers to climb. The weapons feel excellent, ranging from simple bows and arrows to assault rifles and explosives, as well as a knife that you can use for some creative kills. Even swimming, which is notoriously difficult to nail in a video game, doesn’t get in the way, but the real star of the show is villain Vaas. An erratic and terrifying criminal henchman portrayed by actor Michael Mando, his “definition of insanity” monologue is oft-repeated. Future games included their own big, charismatic villains to hit the same notes, but none of them did it as well as Far Cry 3.
PlatinumGames has updated fans on Bayonetta 3 , saying that development is continuing as expected, but that the release of further details surrounding the game is essentially out of the studio’s control.
In an interview with VGC, Bayonetta creator Hideki Kamiya said that the studio is “proud” of the work that it has put into Bayonetta 3. However, despite previously saying that fans might see more from the game this year, Kamiya remained cautious about announcing when fans might expect a reveal for the game, stressing that the decision to show it off was ultimately up to Nintendo.
“If you remember last time, I said that even though everyone was asking about Bayonetta 3, maybe you should tell everyone to forget about it for a while,” said Kamiya when asked whether fans would likely see anything from the game in time for Christmas. “I kind of need to keep to that stance for now because ultimately, it’s not our decision what to say and when to say it.”
Bayonetta 3 was originally announced at The Game Awards 2017, where a short teaser trailer was shown for the title. However, since then, nothing been shown off from the series’ third installment. Elsewhere in the interview, Kamiya spoke further about how the studio is keen to show fans more from Bayonetta 3.
“As much as everyone is clamoring to see it, we are really, really waiting to release it too,” said Kamiya. “Everyone who is working on the project is of course very proud of what we’re doing and wants everyone to see what we’re doing. As much as fans are waiting for it, we are waiting for the day when we can show it. We want everyone to cheer us on as we run to the final stretch. We want to show it too!”
Considering the general silence surrounding the game, it wouldn’t be too unrealistic for fans to wonder whether this was due to issues in its development. However, PlatinumGames’ studio head Atsushi Inaba was reported to have reassured fans when speaking to VGC. “There’s no need to worry,” he said. “Don’t worry about it at this time. Everything’s OK.”
Back in June, Nintendo said that Bayonetta 3 was “progressing well” despite its absence from E3 2021. Nintendo’s Bill Trinen said, “We like to show things when we’re ready to show them. And certainly, we like to show things when the developers are ready to show them. We didn’t have it here at E3, but stay tuned.”
For more on Bayonetta 3, make sure to check out our dedicated IGN page for the game where you can read up a range of the latest news about the upcoming Nintendo title.
Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
Alan Wake Remastered is coming later this year and it’ll be followed by a full-on sequel, according to a new report. Reporter Jeff Grubb said Epic Games has agreed to greenlight a sequel.
“They’re planning an Alan Wake sequel. They are working with Epic Games on producing an Alan Wake 2, or at least it’s in the planning stages. So does that turn into anything concrete and real? I’m hopeful. I think so. I don’t imagine it will get derailed,” Grubb said on GameSpot sister site Giant Bomb’s Grubbsnax show, as reported by VGC.
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Remedy’s Sam Lake said in 2018 that making Alan Wake 2 would be a “dream.” At the time, Lake said the Finnish studio was exploring possibilities for more Alan Wake games.
In 2020, Remedy signed a publishing deal with Epic Games for two multiplatform games. One of these is Remedy’s “most ambitious” game yet, described as a “AAA” game that was in the pre-production phase as of March 2020. The second is a “new, smaller-scale project” that is set in the same series. Whether or not these projects are Alan Wake 2 and Alan Wake Remastered, or other endeavors, remains unknown.
In May this year, Remedy confirmed that it had six games in production. These include the two mentioned above, the single-player modes for Crossfire X and Crossfire HD, a free-to-play game called Vanguard, and one “new, exciting early-phase project.”
Bayonetta 3 for Nintendo Switch remains in development, but whether or not we’ll actually see the game again before the end of the year remains a mystery. Director Hideki Kamiya and PlatinumGames boss Atsushi Inaba recently shared an update on the game with VGC.
Asked if Bayonetta 3 might be shown before Christmas, as Kamiya previously alluded to, the director said, “It was more of a not definitely ‘something will come out this year,’ but if there is a year, then something should happen, right?”
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“If you remember last time, I said that even though everyone was asking about Bayonetta 3, maybe you should tell everyone to forget about it for a while. I kind of need to keep to that stance for now because ultimately, it’s not our decision what to say and when to say it.”
As for Inaba, he told fans not to worry. “There’s no need to worry. Don’t worry about it at this time. Everything’s OK.”
The decision about when to show more of Bayonetta 3 rests with Nintendo, which is publishing the game.
“As much as everyone is clamoring to see it, we are really, really waiting to release it too… We want everyone to cheer us on as we run to the final stretch,” Kamiya said. “We want to show it too!”
Bayonetta 3 was announced all the way back in 2017, and updates since then have been few and far between. At E3 2021, Nintendo said development on the game is “progressing well,” but it was still too soon to actually show more of it.
“We like to show things when we’re ready to show them,” Nintendo’s Bill Trinen said at the time. “And certainly we like to show things when the developers are ready to show them.”
There’s been a running question in video games this year, as thirsty fans have been wondering just how tall certain characters are in video games. Not to be outdone by Resident Evil’s statuesque vampires and Destiny 2’s towering trickster gods, God of War: Ragnarok also happens to have a giant in the form of Asgardian deity Tyr. He’s big, but he’s not quite Lady Dimitrescu big.
PlayStation’s UK Twitter account asked God of War: Ragnarok developer Sony Santa Monica for some numbers on the imprisoned deity’s height, and the studio obliged by revealing that he stands at an imposing 8 feet and 5 inches. For the sake of comparison, that would make Tyr almost as tall as Robert Wadlow, the tallest living human in history at 8 feet and 11 inches.
On the fictional scale, Tyr is an entire foot shorter than Lady Dimitrescu and is dwarfed by gaming’s current tall lady record-holder, Destiny 2’s Witch Queen Savathun. Even if he stood on the shoulders of Kratos–who is also quite tall–Tyr would still be looking up at Savathun.
In more God of War: Ragnarok news, this week’s PlayStation Showcasedropped a new trailer for the game. With the game now being helmed by God of War 2018’s combat and systems designer Eric Williams, this latest chapter is set to be the end of the current Norse saga and will continue the story of Atreus and Kratos’ relationship as father and son.
God of War: Ragnarok is scheduled to be released on both PS4 and PS5 in 2022.
