Author: Trafficblast

Disney Television Studios has unveiled its official schedule for Comic-Con@Home 2021, which will take place July 23-25.

The studio’s line-up features panel discussions with cast and producers from eight fan-favorite series, including animated comedies American Dad, Bob’s Burgers, Duncanville, Family Guy, and The Simpsons, along with Comic-Con newcomers Central Park and The Great North. The new Disney+ series The Mysterious Benedict Society is also in the mix this year.

See below for the official details of the panels coming from Disney Television Studios, which is comprised of 20th Television, ABC Signature and 20th Television Animation.

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July 23

3:00pm (PT): Duncanville

“Join the Harris family and friends for a hilarious conversation about the spectacularly average life of 15-year-old Duncan Harris on FOX’s hit animated series Duncanville. Executive producers Mike Scully and Julie Thacker-Scully, executive producer and star Amy Poehler, and stars Ty Burrell, Riki Lindhome, Joy Osmanski, Yassir Lester and Betsy Sodaro tease the rest of this season and next, and give fans a special look at an upcoming episode featuring a musical number with everyone’s favorite teacher, Mr. Mitch (voiced by Wiz Khalifa).”

July 24

11:00am (PT): The Simpsons

“Simpsons Season 33 and beyond! Join Matt Selman, Al Jean, David Silverman, Carolyn Omine, Mike B. Anderson, Debbie Mahan and moderator Yeardley Smith as they give you an exclusive sneak preview of Season 33. A panel of animators, writers and special surprise guests will answer your questions, tell behind-the-scenes stories, and reveal the secrets of the Springfield Cinematic Universe.”

3:00pm (PT): Central Park

“Join co-creator and executive producer Loren Bouchard; co-creator, executive producer and voice of Birdie, Josh Gad; the voice of Owen Tillerman Leslie Odom Jr.; the voice of Cole Tillerman Titus Burgess; and producers Kelvin Yu and Steven Davis, from Apple’s musical animated series Central Park for the show’s ‘Con debut. The panelists discuss how they brought this harmonious series to life by merging comedy with the very brightest talent of Broadway and some of the best songwriters in the world.”

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4:00pm (PT): Family Guy

“Join cast Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Mila Kunis, Seth Green, Arif Zahir and executive producers Rich Appel and Alec Sulkin from Fox’s hit animated comedy Family Guy as we celebrate 20 seasons of the series with a virtual trivia night. Watch our cast and producers compete against each other and see who knows the most about this iconic series. After, you’ll see a special sneak peek at the hilarity and hi-jinx coming up in our 20th season premiering this fall on Fox.”

5:00pm (PT): American Dad!

“Ever wondered how your favorite American Dad! episodes get made? Join Matt Weitzman as he walks you through the creation of an upcoming episode of the current season airing on TBS. You’ll see a table read, featuring stars Rachael MacFarlane, Wendy Schaal, Scott Grimes and Dee Bradley Baker, followed by parts of the episode in the animatic and early stages of color.”

July 25

11:00am (PT): The Mysterious Benedict Society

“Based on [the] New York Times bestseller which Time Magazine called “one of the best young adult books of all time,” – The Mysterious Benedict Society has finally come to life on screens across the world this summer on Disney+. Placed undercover at a boarding school known as The Institute, a group of orphans must foil a nefarious plot with global ramifications while creating a new sort of family along the way. Join our series stars, Tony Hale, Kristen Schaal, MaameYaa Baofo, Ryan Hurst and Gia Sandhu along with executive producers and writers, Phil Hay (creator), Matt Manfredi (creator), Darren Swimmer (showrunner) and Todd Slavkin (showrunner), as they talk about all the adventures from the first season, tease what’s to come in the final two episodes and the future of the series, moderated by TV Guide Magazine’s Damian Holbrook.”

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12:00pm (PT): The Great North

“Join us as we take a look at one of Fox’s newest animated series, already picked up for a third season, The Great North. Join creators and executive producers Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux, executive producer Loren Bouchard and the all-star cast including Nick Offerman, Jenny Slate, Dulcé Sloan, Will Forte, Paul Rust and Alanis Morissette for a truly wild and hilarious Q&A including exclusive clips and breaking news on the outrageous Alaskan adventures in store for the Tobin family in the upcoming season.”

3:00pm (PT): Bob’s Burgers

“The cast and producers of the Emmy Award-winning animated Fox series Bob’s Burgers are back for another virtual ‘Con breaking news about the upcoming season, showing never-before-seen footage and answering questions from a few lucky fans who get to join the zoom to ask their burning questions directly to the panellists. Join creator and executive producer Loren Bouchard, executive producer Nora Smith and the hilarious cast including H. Jon Benjamin, John Roberts, Kristen Schaal, Eugene Mirman, Dan Mintz and Larry Murphy for a panel you won’t want to miss.”

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Comic-Con International: San Diego cancelled its 2021 convention back in March due to precautions around staging an in-person event during the pandemic. As with last year’s SDCC, the physical convention is being replaced with a virtual Comic-Con@Home, featuring a variety of panels covering fan-favorite topics, from TV and movies to comics, publishing, toys, and so much more. Stay tuned to IGN for all of the latest details as they come in.

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Adele Ankers is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

In an age of cryptocurrencies and digital banking, gift cards are an oddity in that landscape due to their inflexible nature and many of them having expiration dates. One cunning thief, however, funded a lavish lifestyle with Xbox gift cards using a loophole in Microsoft’s online store, as a Bloomberg report detailed how engineer Volodymyr Kvashuk managed to steal over $10 million from Microsoft before he was eventually busted.

It was the perfect crime: As an employee of Microsoft who was tasked with simulating purchases on the company’s digital store, Kvashuk discovered that whenever he tested purchases of gift cards he would receive real codes. Kvashuk started small, generating Xbox cards in increments from $10 to $100 while working his day job of preventing the online store from shipping fake purchases of physical goods. Recruiting a few co-workers to help him in his scheme and using multiple profiles while routing his internet traffic through servers in Japan and Russia, Kvashuk would generate thousands of dollars’ worth of gift cards and then sell them online for up to 55% off their regular price.

Kvashuk even went so far as to build a computer program to increase the speed at which he bought gift cards, selling them in bulk on the marketplace Paxful, which allowed gift cards to be traded for cryptocurrency. One trader is reported to have paid Kvashuk 1.98 Bitcoins, then worth $17,240, for 300 Xbox cards. With all that Bitcoin and some crypto-investing, Kvashuk was able to purchase his dream lakefront home, but Microsoft’s Fraud Investigation Strike Team–FIST–was onto him.

In 2018, FIST noticed a spike in online purchases using gift card codes and corporate investigators traced the irregular activity to two internal test accounts belonging to employees of the Microsoft store team, and these accounts were soon blacklisted after it was discovered that $8 million had been stolen. When a third account was activated and stole another $1.6 million in Xbox gift cards, the jig was essentially up.

Microsoft called in a veteran detective of Scotland Yard’s computer crime unit, Andrew Cookson, to help assist FIST, and after reading through CSV data, Kvashuk’s name turned up as one of the official test accounts that had bought some Xbox gift cards illegitimately in 2017. Kvashuk had already been connected to stolen codes that had been used at Microsoft’s web store to buy three Nvidia GeForce graphics cards, which had been shipped to “Grigor Shikor” at unit 309 of the Norman Arms in Seattle. There was no Shikor living at the Norman Arms in that unit, but Kvashuk was living in unit 101. Busted.

A month later Kvashuk would be fired and in February 2020 he was charged with a number of crimes such as money laundering, identity theft, and wire fraud by federal prosecutors. In November of 2020, a judge sentenced him to nine years in prison. It’s a wild story, with the Bloomberg report containing even more fascinating details, such as Kvashuk being the sole person responsible for global fluctuations in the price of Xbox gift cards on reseller markets at one point.

Summer Games Done Quick–or SGDQ, as it’s more commonly known–is returning this weekend for more game speedrunning and charity fundraising. As always, the event will feature a whole bunch of the world’s best players trying to complete games and special challenges as quickly as possible, all while raising money for Doctors Without Borders.

SGDQ 2021 will be entirely online as we continue efforts to eliminate COVID-19. More than 100 speedruns will take place over the week, which kicks off on July 4 and runs through July 11. They include a run of the new game Ghosts ‘N Goblins Resurrection by TheMexicanRunner as well as a blindfolded Super Mario 64 run from Bubzia. The camera doesn’t really let you see much in that game sometimes, so perhaps it will be easier than we think?

How To Watch SGDQ 2021

SGDQ 2021 will be streamed on the organization’s official Twitch channel beginning July 4 at 8:30 AM PT / 11:30 AM ET, and we’ve embedded the stream directly above. The stream will run for around 12 hours each day, and it includes some newer games like Bowser’s Fury for Nintendo Switch and Fire Emblem: Three Houses. The Souls series almost always gets represented at the event, and Dark Souls 3 is confirmed, with Demon’s Souls available as a bonus game. If you’ve been itching for a Nintendogs run, this is the event for you, as well.

The full schedule is available on the official website. 100% of donations will go to the charity, and the event always has incentive rewards including entry into raffles for prizes or getting to pick character names in a game being streamed.

Ai: The Somnium Files is set to launch for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC in spring 2022. It’s already up for preorder (see it at Amazon). It’s available in a standard edition and a special collector’s edition. Below, you’ll find all the details about what comes in each edition, where you can preorder it, and how much it costs. Let’s get down to business.

Ai: The Somnium Files – Nirvana Initiative Collector’s Edition

Amazon

• Get it for PS4 – $119.99
• Get it for Nintendo Switch – $119.99
• Get it for Xbox One – $119.99

According to publisher Spike Chunsoft, the collector’s edition comes with the following (capitalization very much theirs):

• AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES – nirvanA Initiative 
• Exclusive Good Smile Company POP UP PARADE ~170mm PVC figure of the beautiful AI-Ball “Aiba”
• SECRET OF THE WORLD: THE DEFIniTIVE ART BOOK featuring concept art and illustrations by Yusuke Kozaki
• HARMOniOUS DISCORD official soundtrack by returning composer Keisuke Ito

Ai: The Somnium Files – Nirvana Initiative Standard Edition

Amazon

• Get it for Nintendo Switch – $59.99
• Get it for Xbox One – $59.99
• See it for PS4 – (Not yet available)

If you don’t need or want the extras, you can preorder the standard edition, which just comes with the game.

Ai: The Somnium Files – Nirvana Initiative Release Date

No exact release date has been announced yet, but the game will arrive on all platforms sometime in spring 2022.

What is Ai: The Somnium Files – Nirvana Initiative?

Ai: The Somnium Files – Nirvana Initiative is a sequel to the 2019 mystery detective game AI: The Somnium Files.

This time around, you play as Special Agent Mizuki who, along with her AI partner Aiba, must solve a series of strange murders. Six years ago, the right half of a body was discovered. This mystery went unsolved until now, when the left half of the body shows up with no signs of decay. What is happening? That’s up to you to uncover.

Other Preorder Guides

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Chris Reed is a commerce editor for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.

Take-Two Interactive, the parent company for developers including Rockstar Games, has acquired Dynamixyz, a French-based studio that has provided facial animation services for Take-Two games NBA 2K21 and Red Dead Redemption 2.

The acquisition means that Dynamixyz will now provide exclusive facial animation and proprietary motion capture to all of Take-Two’s publishing labels and developers.

“Dynamixyz’s revolutionary facial analysis technology and services is a highly complementary and strategic addition to Take-Two’s world-class publishing and development structure,” Take-Two’s Executive Vice President and Head of Strategy and Independent Publishing said in the announcement blog post. “Gaspard and the visionary team at Dynamixyz have a well-earned reputation for providing the widest and smartest range of facial motion capture solutions to the entertainment industry, and their work has captivated millions of people around the world from the box office to the living room. We’re thrilled to have them join our team, incorporate their proprietary technologies and creative wonder into our future offerings, and to continue to evolve their capabilities and solutions.”

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In our review for Red Dead Redemption 2, we noted that the facial animations in the game were “is a noticeable step up from GTA V.” While in our review for NBA 2K21, although we felt the start-up on animations once the ball got to the post lacked urgency we felt, in general, that dribbling felt “more responsive and rarely leads to the awkward, uncontrollable animations that have plagued the franchise for years.”

In addition to working on video games, Dynamixyz has previously provided its services to other forms of media in the entertainment industry, including the animated TV series Love, Death, and Robots, in addition to movies such as Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame.

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Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

The Uniqlo X Animal Crossing collection is available now featuring Animal Crossing: New Horizons-themed clothes both in stores and in-game. The collection had been previously announced for July without a specific date. You may want to hurry if you’re interested, as Animal Crossing: New Horizons merch tends to sell out pretty quickly.

The retail half of this collection features six T-Shirts for men, seven for women, and five for children. It also has three baby shirts, three bags, and three towels. The adult-sized shirts are available for $20 USD both online and in Uniqlo stores. The online shop is limiting orders to one piece per pattern per customer, so you can only order one of each design.

Uniqlo also put together a number of custom designs for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, making in-game versions of the real designs that players can download. You can also visit the Uniqlo Dream Island, which has a recreation of a Uniqlo store. The Dream address is DA-5439-8379-5190.

Uniqlo has done multiple video game collections in the past, including one for the Mario 35th anniversary and a collection inspired by Pokemon Go.

Netflix is producing a sequel to the 2020 Charlize Theron movie The Old Guard, which is good news because the original film left off on an epic cliffhanger.

Theron told Variety that a script is complete and shooting will begin in the first quarter of 2022. Little else is known, but Theron did confirm that the gay couple from the 2020 movie, played by Marwan Kenzari and Luca Marinelli, will return in the sequel.

The Old Guard reached 78 million viewers in its first four weeks, making it the fourth most popular Netflix original movie of all time based on Netflix’s numbers for people who watched at least two minutes.

Based on the graphic novel of the same name, by Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernandez,The Old Guard follows a group of immortal soldiers out for revenge. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Matthias Schoenaerts also starred in it.

If you haven’t seen the movie, we won’t spoil it for you here, but the final scene is a dramatic cliffhanger. Here’s to hoping the sequel picks up from there.

What We Do In The Shadows creators Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement are working on a new TV show. Clement has revealed the series will be very different to anything they’ve made before.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Clement was reluctant give many details away but did give a few hints about what to expect. “Taika and I are working on a new series right now which we just started writing,” he said. “I can’t tell you much about it yet, but what’s fun about it and what makes it exciting for me is it’s something I always wanted to do which is long-form episodes in a sitcom. It’s an action-adventure comedy.

“It’ll be different from what I’ve usually done. I’ve made three sitcoms now, and I hope this one is still funny but more of an adventure series.”

Waititi and Clement have collaborated numerous times in past. The pair co-directed and starred in the 2014 horror comedy movie What We Do In The Shadows, which spawned the highly acclaimed show of the same title and the spin-off Wellington Paranormal. Waititi also directed multiple episodes of Clement and Bret McKenzie’s musical comedy series The Flight of the Conchords.

This new show is one of many projects that Waititi is involved in. His upcoming sports comedy Next Goal Wins, starring Michael Fassbender, was shot in late 2019, and he recently wrapped production on the Marvel movie Thor: Love and Thunder, ahead of its February 2022 release. He’s also producing the HBO pirate comedy Our Flag Means Death, developing two animated Charlie and the Chocolate Factory series for Netflix, co-producing the FX comedy Reservation Dogs, and is attached to a future Star Wars movie.

GameStop has kicked off its Fourth of July sale with deals on games, accessories, and collectibles. While there aren’t a ton of deals on new games, there is a great promotion on preowned titles. All preowned games are buy two, get one free. Unlike some other B2G1 free promotions at GameStop, this deal doesn’t have any exclusions. GameStop’s Independence Day sale runs through Sunday, July 4.

As always, you’ll get the cheapest game for free during the buy two, get one free promotion, so it makes sense to pick games that are close in price. For instance, if you’re shopping for Switch games, GameStop has Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Super Mario 3D All-Stars, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for $48 each. If you were to buy all three of those at regular price, you’d spend $180. Instead, you’re getting this trio of great games for $96 total.

Select PC gaming accessories are also on sale during GameStop’s Fourth of July promotion, including numerous Asus products. The Asus Rog 2.4GHz wireless headset is discounted to $180 and the Strix Impact II wired gaming mouse is $40.

Razer accessories are also on sale for up to $20 off. You can grab the BlackShark V2 wired gaming headset for $90, the Ripsaw HD capture card for $140, and the Kraken wired gaming headset for $61.20.

Though not a stellar deal, you can get GameStop gift cards by buying collectibles this weekend. If you spend $75, you’ll get a $10 gift card and $15 if you spend $125.

For more holiday deals, make sure to check out our roundup of the best Fourth of July sales. Also, don’t forget that the Steam Summer Sale is still running. We’ve rounded up our favorite deals as well as some great bargains.

PlayStation has acquired Nixxes, a Dutch studio that specialises in porting games to PC.

Announced by Head of PlayStatio Studios Hermen Hulst, Nixxes has been bought for an undisclosed fee. The studio will “provide high quality in-house technical and development capabilities for PlayStation Studios,” according to a press release.

Nixxes has worked extensively with Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal and IO Interactive since forming in 1999, porting the recent Tomb Raider trilogy and the two most recent Deus Ex games to PC. While no specifics have been given about Nixxes’ work for PlayStation, it feels likely that the studio will support Sony’s increased focus on porting its console exclusive games to PC.

Excited to announce that the talented Dutch studio Nixxes Software will be joining PlayStation Studios. It’s a real pleasure to welcome a team with such deep technical expertise and vast experience to the @Playstation family. Huge congrats to everyone @NixxesSoftware!

— Hermen Hulst (@hermenhulst) July 1, 2021

“I highly respect Nixxes and am excited for this very experienced team to become part of the world-class development community at SIE,” said Hulst in a statement. “They have a passion for improving games and for delivering the best possible experience for gamers. Nixxes will be a strong asset for everyone across PlayStation Studios, helping our teams focus on their most important goal, which is to create unique PlayStation content at the best possible quality.”

“We can’t wait to get to work and are so excited to bring our technical and development expertise to an IP powerhouse like PlayStation Studios,” said Nixxes founder Jurjen Katsman. “We’re looking forward to working with some of the most talented teams in the industry to deliver the highest-quality gameplay experiences for PlayStation fans.”

It marks the second Sony studio acquisition this week, after Housemarque officially became a part of PlayStation Studios. It feels likely that we may see a third soon, after Sony Japan seemed to leak that it would also acquire remake studio Bluepoint.

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