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Nintendo and Tag Heuer Made a $2,000 Mario-Themed Smartwatch

Following a teaser released late last week, Tag Heuer, the maker of Swiss luxury watches, has announced that it’s teamed up with Nintendo to create a Mario-themed smartwatch. And it costs $2,150.

According to the press release, Tag Heuer’s new premium watch is themed around Nintendo’s iconic mascot, and features a 45mm watch face, a built-in heart rate monitor, compass, accelerometer, water-resistance up to 5ATM, and two straps: one red rubber strap and a black leather strap on red rubber. The watch includes a 430mAh battery, which Tag Heuer claims will deliver a full day of battery life on a single charge.

Tag Heuer’s Mario-themed watch also includes Google’s Wear OS, meaning you can access functions found on other wearables using the operating system, such as Google Assistant.

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As you’d expect, this limited edition wearable also includes a Super Mario-themed interface with four new watch faces to select, such as one where Mario becomes invisible or another where Mario is on top of a warp pipe. Tag Heuer confirmed that it will use a “gamification rewards system,” with Mario greeting you each morning you wake up, and various animations playing each time you complete a stage towards a daily step count target.

The Mario-themed smartwatch will be available starting July 15th and will cost $2,150. However, only 2,000 units were created, and depending on your region, you can only purchase them at select Tag Heuer boutiques or on Tag Heuer’s official website.

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

Get Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition For Steam For Just $20

The Steam Summer Sale ended last week, as did one of its best discounts: Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition for $30 (down from its $50 list price). If you didn’t snag Zero Dawn during Steam’s annual sale, however, you’re in luck, because there’s an even better discount available right now. PC keys store CDKeys currently has Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition Steam keys for just $19.59; that’s the cheapest we’ve ever seen Zero Dawn for PC and a phenomenal price for the bundle that gets you both the base game and expansion. You’ll get the Steam key immediately after purchase, which you can then activate in the Steam launcher to add the game to your library.

Originally a PlayStation exclusive, Horizon Zero Dawn had a rough arrival on PC with performance and graphical issues at launch, but developer Guerrilla has since released several patches for the game, getting it in a much more stable state on PC. The most recent patch, Patch 1.10, is the last one the PC version will receive for some time; it fixed some known crashes and further improved performance.

Horizon Zero Dawn is set in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by dinosaur-like machines. It follows a young warrior named Aloy in her search for answers about the past and features a stunning open world to explore. Its expansion, The Frozen Wilds, is excellent and unlocks a brand-new area with even tougher machines to fight. With a sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, on the way for PS4 and PS5 (with Sony targeting a Holiday 2021 release), now’s as good a time as any to dive into Zero Dawn and see what it’s all about.

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How to Watch Space Jam: A New Legacy

Space Jam: A New Legacy is the next Warner Bros. movie to be released in theaters and on HBO Max on the same day. The movie is directed by Malcolm D. Lee (Girls Trip) and stars LeBron James alongside Bugs Bunny, Lola Bunny, and the rest of the Looney Tunes crew.

If you’re wondering how to watch Space Jam: A New Legacy or have any other questions about the movie, we have you covered below.

Watch Space Jam: A New Legacy on HBO Max

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If you want to watch Space Jam: A New Legacy at home, you’ll need the ad-free HBO Max subscription. It costs $14.99 per month, and you can cancel any time.  (The original Space Jam movie is also available on the service).

Unlike the Premier Access movies arriving on Disney+ (including Black Widow), Space Jam: A New Legacy doesn’t cost any additional money to watch on HBO Max. It’s included with your subscription, as are the rest of the 2021 Warner Bros. movie lineup. You can see the rest of the year’s theatrical/HBO Max release dates below.

When Does Space Jam: A New Legacy Come Out?

Space Jam: A New Legacy arrives in theaters and on HBO Max on Friday, July 16.

How Long will Space Jam: A New Legacy Be on HBO Max?

Like the rest of the 2021 Warner Bros. theatrical releases, Space Jam: A New Legacy will remain on HBO Max for 30 days. That means you have between July 16 and August 15 to watch it.

Space Jam: A New Legacy Trailers

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What is Space Jam: A New Legacy?

A sequel to the 1996 movie starring Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes crew, Space Jam: A New Legacy takes place in modern times. It kicks off when an artificial intelligence kidnaps the star basketball player LeBron James and his son Dom into a digital metaverse. 

To escape, LeBron must help Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Looney Tunes crew defeat a team of the AI’s digitized NBA and WNBA players. It’s the Tune Squad versus the Goon Squad.

Other Theatrical Releases Coming to HBO Max

  • Space Jam: A New Legacy – July 16, 2021
  • The Suicide Squad – August 6, 2021
  • Reminiscence – September 3, 2021
  • Malignant – September 10, 2021
  • The Many Saints of Newark – October 1, 2021
  • Dune – October 22, 2021
  • King Richard – November 19, 2021
  • Matrix 4 – December 22, 2021

Here’s the rest of the Warner Bros. movies landing for no additional cost on HBO Max the same day they hit theaters. Quite a few big-name movies are on the list, including The Suicide Squad, Matrix 4, Dune, and the Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark.

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

Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch Gets Revolutionary First Clip

The first clip from The French Dispatch has been released. The cast of the new film from Wes Anderson includes Timothée Chalamet, Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, and Tilda Swinton, and it releases on October 16.

The title of the film refers to an American magazine operating out of a French city during the mid-20th century. In this clip, Chalamet’s student revolutionary Zeffirelli is working on his manifesto in the bath, while trading quips with McDormand’s journalist Lucinda Krementz, who is profiling him. Anderson fans will love the deadpan dialogue and stylish black-and-white photography, and this looks set to be his highest profile movie to date. Check the trailer out below:

As with many Anderson movies, The French Dispatch has an amazing ensemble cast. As well as the actors mentioned above, there are roles for Jeffrey Wright, Adrien Brody, Benicio del Toro, Owen Wilson, Léa Seydoux, Christoph Waltz, Elisabeth Moss, Henry Winkler, Saoirse Ronan, Liev Schreiber, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, and Anjelica Huston.

The French Dispatch was originally set for release in July 2020, but like most films last year, it was delayed. The first trailer was released back in February 2020–check it out here.

In a 2019 interview, Anderson provided a few details about the movie’s themes. “The story is not easy to explain,” he said, via The Playlist. “[It’s about an] American journalist based in France [who] creates his magazine. It is more a portrait of this man, of this journalist who fights to write what he wants to write. It’s not a movie about freedom of the press, but when you talk about reporters you also talk about what’s going on in the real world.”

Xbox Studios Boss: There Is No Mandate That Every Game Needs To Be Live Service

Many games today are embracing the live service approach where new content is regularly added to keep things fresh, but Xbox isn’t making it a mandate for its developers to do this. Speaking to The Guardian, Xbox Studios boss Matt Booty said not every Xbox game needs to have a live service component, though many will.

“We don’t have any direction or mandate that says every game has to be an ongoing, sustained game,” he said.

Booty pointed to Double Fine’s Psychonauts series as an example. It’s not exactly the type of franchise one would associate with live service, and Booty expects that would continue if the series grows beyond Psychonauts 2. In fact, Booty said there is no expectation that Double Fine makes another game in that series at all.

“There might be a Psychonauts 3, but I’m not going to tell [designer] Tim Schafer to go make it. Knowing the history of games that he makes, I don’t think he’s going to be making a game that has seasons and goes on for five years,” Booty said.

One of the benefits of buying so many studios and franchises is that Microsoft can have its fingers in multiple pieces at the same time. While not every franchise from Xbox will be live service, some will, including Sea of Thieves and Halo Infinite.

“Sea of Thieves has longevity and we’re going to have Halo multiplayer start to be based around seasons, but [We Happy Few studio] Compulsion Games, our studio in Montreal, weren’t told to go build something that’s going to have seasons or six pieces of DLC or something. Tell Me Why was an important story for us to get out there, but there is no mandate that they’ve got to go figure out how to do seasons for that game,” Booty said.

Another trend that is increasingly popular in games today is scripting and user-generated content, and Booty said this is something that Xbox may lean into further in the future.

“With Forza Horizon 5, we added the ability to design challenges and obstacle courses. We’ve had Halo Forge, which lets you design your own multiplayer levels. In Flight Simulator, that activity is a lot more sophisticated,” he said. “So I think we’ll see that going forward, where people just have an expectation that they can do more through scripting and mods. And certainly, with the addition of Bethesda to the Xbox family, they’ve got a long history of understanding how mods work–we’ve seen that with Skyrim.”

Also in the interview, Xbox boss Phil Spencer discussed Xbox’s plans to extend its game development efforts to new markets, potentially including India, Africa, and South America.

Today Only, Snag Apple TV 4K For $99

The Amazon-owned deals site Woot is currently throwing a big birthday bash for itself and celebrating with a massive slate of discounts on all sorts of tech. Today, one of the best deals we’re seeing drops the Apple TV 4K (32GB) to $120–but if you buy in the Woot app, you’ll save an extra 17%, slashing your final price to $99.60 (with free standard shipping for Prime members). That’s an awesome price for this powerful streaming box that normally sells for nearly $180. The app-exclusive price is available only today, July 13, and there’s a chance it could sell out sooner. You can download the Woot app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The discount appears automatically in checkout, in the “Review Your Order” step.

Apple TV 4K (32GB, previous model)
Apple TV 4K (32GB, previous model)

The Apple TV 4K is one of the best streaming devices to buy, especially for Apple users, with support for 4K and HDR (Dolby Vision and HDR10) and Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 surround sound. It can stream content from all the top services, like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and, of course, Apple TV+. And its Siri Remote includes voice search to help you quickly find what you’re looking for–definitely a major help when you’re trying to find a specific show or movie and don’t know where it’s streaming. Though this is the previous-gen Apple TV 4K model, the main difference between this and the 2021 model is a faster processor and a revamped Siri remote–that upgraded model sells for $169 at Amazon.

Woot’s birthday sale continues all month long. Right now, you can also save big on a refurbished Apple Watch (Series 3, Series 4, and Series 5 included) and a ton of MSI PC equipment, including monitors and desktops.

Persona Developer Atlus Teases 7 Upcoming Announcements For The Series

Developer Atlus is marking the 25th anniversary of the Persona franchise with some big news, as the studio teased not one but seven new announcements for the series. These reveals won’t be made all at once though, as Atlus tweeted that it’ll spread the silver anniversary announcements out over the course of a year, the first of which will be made in September and the final one coming in Autumn 2022.

“Stay tuned for a year of Persona news, events, and more,” Atlus tweeted with an image that looked vaguely like Grand Theft Persona.

What those announcements could be are up for speculation as they could range from new games through to merchandise drops, but what is interesting is that the tweet came from both Atlus and its western marketing division, Atlus West.

Atlus parent Sega recently confirmed that it would increase efforts to bring games from the developer to western audiences much more quickly than compared to previous efforts which resulted in year-long waits for some titles. Sega’s also looking to bring more of the Atlus library to PC, especially with games like Persona 4 Golden finding great success on the platform.

As for the rest of the franchise, it continues to be a prime intellectual property for Atlus. Last year’s Persona 5 Royal earned positive reviews and sales, while this year saw the series venture into the Muso genre with the spin-off Persona 5 Strikers.

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Ghostwire: Tokyo Delayed to Early 2022

Ghostwire: Tokyo has been delayed into early 2022 in order to ‘protect the health’ of those working on the game.

Announced on Twitter, developer Tango Gameworks thanked fans for their patience, and promised to show more of the supernatural action game in the coming months. “Our new release window will give us the time to bring the world of Ghostwire to life as we’ve always envisioned it,” read the statement:

While no specific reasoning was given for the delay, protecting the health of employees could come down to COVID-19 related production problems (particularly amid a recent spike in cases in Japan), or avoiding crunch culture at the studio. It may well refer to both.

Ghostwire: Tokyo was previously set to launch for PS5 and PC this year. It’s the newest game from legendary director Shinji Mikami and his Tango Gameworks studio (The Evil Within) and, while it includes horror motifs, it’s more of an action-adventure game.

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Despite Xbox buying Tango Gameworks’ parent company, ZeniMax Media, PS5 exclusivity deals will be honoured for both Ghostwire: Tokyo and Deathloop. However, Deathloop’s exclusivity will eventually time out, and you can expect Ghostwire: Tokyo to see a similar deal. Microsoft has not yet commented on when Xbox versions of the games could arrive.

It’s far from the only game delayed this year, and it’s a trend that’s set to continue. Ghostwire isn’t even the first game delayed today, with Just Cause Mobile also seeing an unexpected push into 2022.

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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Ghostwire: Tokyo Delayed To 2022 For PS5 And PC

Ghostwire: Tokyo, the next game from The Evil Within studio Tango Gameworks, has been delayed. It’s now scheduled to release in early 2022.

“We’ve made the decision to delay the launch of Ghostwire: Tokyo to early 2022. We want to get the game in your hands as soon as possible so you can experience the unforgettable version of a haunted Tokyo that we’ve been hard at work building. At the same time, we’re also focused on protecting the health of everyone at Tango,” reads a line from the developer’s statement. “Our new release window will give us time to bring the world of Ghostwire to life as we’ve always envisioned it.”

“Thank you for being patient as we work to bring you an experience unlike anything else we’ve ever made. We can’t wait to show you more in the coming months.”

In Ghostwire: Tokyo, the city is overtaken by “deadly supernatural forces.” Players use an arsenal of “spectral abilities” to defeat the monsters and learn what truly happened.

Tango Gameworks is now owned by Microsoft as part of the company’s acquisition of ZeniMax/Bethesda. Despite that, Ghostwire: Tokyo will still release as a timed-exclusive on PS5 (and PC) before it comes to Xbox a year after its release.

Ikumi Nakamura was Ghostwire: Tokyo’s creative director until she left in 2019. Leaving Tango was difficult, Nakamura said, but her health came first. She described feelings of burnout.

“You can’t make games if you’re not healthy,” Nakamura said. “I started wondering whether there wasn’t a way for me to make games while feeling better. I took the decision to quit before it was too late. I was running away in a way.”

In other news, yes, you can pet the dog in Ghostwire: Tokyo.

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Zelda: Skyward Sword Will Finally Have Camera Controls on Switch

Ten years after its original release, the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is finally getting camera controls as part of the upgraded HD version launching this week on Nintendo Switch.

Dropping this information somewhat out of the blue, Nintendo has announced, via the Japanese Legend of Zelda Twitter account, that the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD will include camera controls as part of the game for the first time. This was one of the major points of contention for the original release – due to the limited button configuration of the Wii remote and Nunchuk controller and lack of a second stick, it was often tricky to get the game’s camera to sit where you wanted it to be.

It was particularly annoying in some of the more enclosed spaces in the game’s dungeons for example, which sometimes required Link to be in a very particular position in order to actually view an item or object that would help to solve a puzzle or progress.

This feature wasn’t included in the HD remaster’s Quality of Life Improvements trailer released a couple of weeks ago, which detailed additions such as autosave, skippable cutscenes, and running at 60fps. Nevertheless, it’s a welcome extra, even if it is controlled a little weirdly when playing without motion controls. Due to the right Joycon stick controlling Link’s sword, you’ll have to hold down the L button before moving the stick in order to control the camera.

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The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword launches this week on 16 July. Are you looking forward to the HD version of Skyward Sword? Will you be playing the game for the first time, or are you jumping back in after a decade? With Breath of the Wild 2 launching next year, and fans speculating that the game will have some links to Skyward Sword, now seems like the perfect time to jump in.

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Liam Wiseman is a Freelance News Writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @liamthewiseman