Author: Trafficblast

Amazon Prime Day is one week away, and we’re already anticipating all the Prime Day Switch deals that’ll be up for grabs during the huge annual sale. But surprisingly, one of last year’s best Switch deals has resurfaced ahead of Prime Day: a Switch Online family membership bundle that effectively gets you a SanDisk 128GB microSD card for free. This deal comes from Best Buy, and Amazon is already price-matching the offer as well.

This year’s bundle is even better than last year’s Prime Day deal, which included the Switch Online family plan with a 128GB microSD card for $40. Right now, you can get the exact same bundle for just $35, which happens to be the price of a Switch Online family membership on its own. A total savings of $35 (50% off the value), this bundle offers a rare opportunity to sign up for Switch Online and get a very necessary accessory thrown in for free.

There’s no end date or time on the deal, so there’s no telling how long it’ll be available. It’s possible that Switch Online (individual or family) memberships could get a small outright discount during Prime Day 2021, but it’s not a given thing. Particularly for those who still need a memory card (which expands your storage for downloading more Switch games), this bundle is worth jumping on.

For those with friends or family who also have a Nintendo Switch (or Switch Lite), the family membership is the way to go. Though it’s $15 more expensive than the $20 individual membership, you can split the price between up to eight Nintendo accounts, so you can end up saving way more by roping in a few other people to split the plan with you. It can be as cheap as $4.38 a person for a full year if you find seven other people.

Aside from letting you enjoy online multiplayer in games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, a Switch Online membership also gets you access to the library of classic NES and SNES games on Switch, cloud saves for many Switch games, and other special offers.

Check out more of the best Prime Day deals we’re seeing so far, including Prime Day PS5 deals, Xbox deals, TV deals, and more.

Following its big showing during the Xbox E3 briefing on Sunday, Microsoft is wasting no time to reveal more about Halo Infinite’s multiplayer. Developer 343 Industries is releasing a “multiplayer overview” trailer today, June 14, at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET. [Update: the video is out now; check it out below!]

The video features multiplayer designer Patrick Wren and game designer Fernando Reyes Medina, along with other developers from the studio. The video touched on Halo Infinite’s new seasons, its Battle Passes, customization systems, and lots, lore more. It also touched on the new tutorial mode, The Academy, while the developers talked about bringing new maps and modes to the game over time. The full video is stuffed with lots of new insight, so be sure to watch it below.

At E3, Microsoft confirmed that the classic Arena mode is coming back, while Big Team Battle is now increased in total player size to 12 v 12. We also learned more about some of the new maps and modes, while 343 started to discuss the game’s customization elements and a new tutorial of sorts that features bots and other onboarding systems. 343 also began to discuss the game’s beta plans, so be sure to sign up for Halo Insider.

Check out the Halo Infinite multiplayer overview story to learn more about everything we know so far.

Recently released WWE wrestler Samoa Joe has taken a job in NXT, according to Dave Meltzer in the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio. This time, it will be in a non-wrestling role and confirmed that he’s currently not cleared to compete. Joe was also a commentator for a brief time on Monday Night Raw before released along with several other performers, back in April after Wrestlemania.

It’s theorized that he’s coming back in a more traditional commissioner-style role as Sunday’s In Your House had William Regal leaving the building stating that it’s “time for a change.” He’s been the general manager of NXT for seven years, with Triple H and Shawn Michaels producing a lot of the segments, matches, and promos these days.

On a post-In Your House media call, Triple H confirmed that Joe has taken a position with the company, but whether or not he’s in that GM role isn’t clear.

“He has taken a job in NXT and he’s doing something there,” Triple H said. “He may be as the new authority figure on television, or he may not be, but he’s gonna be behind the scenes.”

Joe made his NXT debut back in 2015 and began feuds with the likes of Finn Balor and Shinsuke Nakamura, eventually becoming NXT Champion twice–the first man to do so. He moved to the main roster in 2017 and became United States Champion in 2019.

Joe’s been a man who has proven he can do it all and with 20 years of experience behind him, taking on the role of GM and mentor to the newer class of NXT and up and comers, it’s safe to believe they’ll be in good hands.

Amazon has added a new batch of early Prime Day deals ahead of the event next week, including a discount on Amazon’s Luna controller. The Luna controller, which looks a lot like a Switch Pro Controller, is specifically designed for Amazon’s cloud gaming service. The service is still in early access, but during Prime Day (June 21-22) all Prime members can sign up for Luna, which includes a 7-day free trial. So if you’re at all interested in Luna, you may want to consider picking up the controller for less while you can. You have to be an Amazon Prime member (and signed into your account) to see this deal.

$49 (was $70)

The Luna controller is on sale for $49, down from $70. The discount won’t show up until checkout. The controller connects via Bluetooth to PC, Mac, smartphones, tablets, and Fire TV. It has essentially the same layout and look as the Switch Pro Controller, features textured handles, and supports Alexa.

$62 (was $83)

Alternatively, you can pick up the Luna controller with a phone clip for $62. If you want to game on your smartphone with Luna, this would make it a whole lot more convenient and comfortable.

The Luna controller isn’t the only new Prime Day deal available now. Amazon has also added a bunch of new deals on Echo products. The Echo Show 5 is discounted to $45, a two-pack Echo Dot bundle is $50 with promo code PDDOT2PK, and the Echo Buds are down to $80.

For more Prime Day deals, make sure to take a peek at our Prime Day hub. We’ve rounded up a wide assortment of early deals, including the best Prime Day Nintendo Switch deals, PS5 deals, Xbox deals, TV deals, laptop deals, and much more.

Target has dropped another buy 2, get 1 free sale on select video games, and this time there’s a special hook: preorders on upcoming games–some just announced at E3 2021–are included in the sale. Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six: Extraction and Just Dance 2022, Sega’s Lost Judgment, Capcom’s Monster Hunter Stories 2, and Serenity Forge’s Doki Doki Literature Club Plus are among the biggest new games that can be reserved as part of the deal.

In order to take advantage of the B2G1 goodness, add the three games you wish to purchase to your cart and the Target system will do the rest, automatically discounting the cheapest of the three. Using the mentioned titles as an example, a cart of Rainbow Six: Extraction ($60), Monster Hunter Stories 2 ($60), and Doki Doki Literature Club Plus ($30) would immediately change Doki Doki’s price to $0.

Check out the best deals at Target, as well as the full sale, below.

Best B2G1 free deals at Target

Amazon is also running a B2G1 sale of its own on top video games, though it does not include preorders at this time. Major games included in the Amazon sale are Resident Evil Village, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, Nier Replicant, and It Takes Two. Many of the games in Amazon’s B2G1 free sale are already discounted as well.

Best B2G1 free deals at Amazon

In both sales games are not the only items on sale, as books, movies, and toys are also included. Target has lumped in the Game of Thrones Complete Series and the complete Harry Potter movie collection, while Amazon is offering The James Bond Collection and The Office: The Complete Series on Blu-ray. You can mix and match anything in the B2G1 sale, so you can pick up one game, one movie, and one toy (for example) and still get the discount in checkout.

Check out Amazon’s B2G1 free sale to see the full list of eligible products, using the tabs on the left side to sort by the department you’re looking for.

At a time when a feel-good movie with some catchy musical numbers could potentially do some big business, In the Heights easily took one of the top spots at the US box office over the weekend. While the musical may not have toppled A Quiet Place Part II from the number one position, the John Chu-directed film of the stage show still earned a respectable $11.4 million on 3,456 screens while also being available on HBO Max for subscribers.

This past weekend’s other big debut was Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, which landed in third place. A sequel to the 2018 film which unfortunately starred the voice of James Corden again, the film made $10.4 million, much less than the original movie’s $25 million opening weekend. While it may not have been the best opening, children’s movies in the current pandemic era have proven to have long-term appeal at cinemas, with Raya and the Last Dragon being a prime example.

After 15 weeks, the Disney film has only just dropped out of the top ten at the US box office as it shows on fewer cinema screens, with the film earning a decent $54 million domestically. Fourth place belonged to The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, with the supernatural horror film grabbing $10 million in its second weekend. Another film currently available to HBO Max subscribers, the latest Conjuring has so far made over $111.8 million worldwide.

The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 arrived in seventh place with $1.1 million earned, although what’s impressive here is that it’s only being screened in 420 theaters. Considering that Snoop Dogg appears in the sequel, that makes perfect sense.

US Weekend Box Office Results – June 11-13

Eidos Montreal, the studio behind the Deus Ex series, is adapting Guardians of the Galaxy. The upcoming action-RPG is a single-player game that puts you in the shoes of Star-Lord. Guardians of the Galaxy releases October 26 for Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and PC, and preorders are starting to become available at major retailers. Three editions are available to preorder, and you can get a cool bonus for ordering early.

Square Enix showed off roughly 15 minutes of gameplay during its E3 showcase, giving us a look at the action gameplay and comedic dynamic between the characters. It looks to retain the heart of the movies and comics (complete with endless banter), which is a critical aspect of Guardians of the Galaxy’s appeal to begin with. Set roughly one year after the crew linked up, Guardians of the Galaxy is more so inspired by the source material than beholden to it, as it features an original story. Although you can only play as Star-Lord, you can utilize the abilities of Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, Drax, and Groot.

Guardians of the Galaxy has a free upgrade from Xbox One to Xbox Series X and PS4 to PS5.

Guardians of the Galaxy preorder bonus

Those who preorder Guardians of the Galaxy at any retailer will receive the Throwback Guardians Costume Pack, which comes with nostalgic costumes for each of the five heroes. GameStop is also offering an exclusive preorder bonus, and it’s a weird one. If you order from GameStop, you’ll get a limited-edition serialized business card in a metal tin.

$60

Guardians of the Galaxy’s $60 standard edition is available to preorder at major retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop. You can also preorder digital copies on the Xbox Store, PlayStation Store, and Steam.

$70

Guardians of the Galaxy’s Digital Deluxe edition is available to preorder for $70 on the PlayStation Store, Xbox Store, and Steam. It comes with the following bonuses:

• Digital soundtrack
• Digital art book
• Sun-Lord outfit
• City-Lord outfit

$80

Guardians of the Galaxy’s Cosmic Deluxe edition is available to preorder for $80 at Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop. It comes with a handful of additional goodies:

• Steelbook case
• Digital soundtrack
• Mini hardcover art book
• Sun-Lord outfit
• City-Lord outfit

One of Apple’s most acclaimed new TV shows, The Morning Show starring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carell, is coming back for a second season. Apple has now published the first trailer for it, setting up what appears to be another drama-filled season that deals with the chaos of what happened in Season 1.

Season 2 premieres September 17, and based on this trailer, is appears to pick up basically immediately after the dramatic ending to Season 1. This trailer is very heavy on spoilers, of course, so if you’re interested in the series but haven’t watched Season 1, well, you probably don’t want to watch this.

Based on this trailer, it appears Billy Crudup’s media executive character will play a bigger part in Season 2 as he attempts to step into a larger role at the news network. Crudup won the Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for The Morning Show, which marked the first Emmy for an Apple show.

The trailer also spotlights some of the newcomers for Season 2, including Hasan Minhaj, who appears to play a news anchor. Check out the full trailer below.

While you have to wait a bit longer to watch The Morning Show Season 2, Apple’s next big show is Ted Lasso Season 2, which premieres July 23.

Fortnite Season 7 Week 2 challenges are nearly here. They’re expected to go live on Wednesday, June 16, at 7 AM PT / 10 AM ET. That’s a day earlier than last season’s Thursday releases, and it may signify a scheduling change for Season 7. When they go live, they’ll offer Fortnite players hundreds of thousands of new weekly XP to earn to level up their Battle Pass. We’ve got the complete list of Fortnite Week 2 challenges below, so take a look and make an action plan using our guides.

Fortnite Week 2 Epic Quests

• Search chests at Corny Complex or Lazy Lake – 0/7 – 30,000 XP
• Explosive damage to opponents or opponent structures – 0/500 – 30,000 XP
• Collect spray cans from warehouses in Dirty Docks or garages in Pleasant Park – 0/2 – 30,000 XP
• Destroy equipment at satellite stations – 0/15 – 30,000 XP
• Search for a graffiti-covered wall at Hydro 16 or near Catty Corner – 0/1 – 30,000 XP
• Visit different named locations in a single match – 0/5 – 30,000 XP
• Enter a UFO – 0/1 – 30,000 XP

Fortnite Week 2 Legendary Quests

• Interact with a dead drop in Weeping Woods (1) – 45,000 XP
• Step onto a Body Scanner (1) – 30,000 XP
• Converse with Rick Sanchez, Marigold, Maven, or Special Forces (3) – 30,000 XP
• Deal damage with IO tech weapons (200) – 30,000 XP
• Damage an IO Guard (1) – 30,000 XP

If you’ve been playing Fortnite for a while, you already know where to find Lazy Lake, as it’s been on the map for several seasons. Corny Complex is new to Season 7 and houses one of the island’s bosses, Doctor Slone. If you head there, be careful of her–and the many players her Mythic Pulse Rifle attracts.

Explosive damage should be easy enough, but it’s made even easier with a UFO, which also satisfies the challenge to enter a UFO. We have a complete guide on where to find UFOs. Don’t worry, they aren’t in short supply. Visiting different named locations in a single match is also easiest with a vehicle, such as a UFO, boat, or car.

Collecting spray cans in Dirty Docks and Pleasant Park is something that can’t be done until the cans appear with the Thursday challenge update, so we’ll have a guide for that shortly. Like Corny Complex, you can learn more about satellite stations in our Season 7 map changes guide, but here’s a short tip: When you’re gliding down from the Battle Bus, head toward the bright red lights. Those are the satellites and will lead you to satellite stations.

The graffiti-covered wall near Catty Corner is the **REDACTED** bunker. It looks like Sunny has painted over the IO insignia with more greetings to her alien overlords.

This week’s Legendary Quests feature a lot of IO interaction. To find IO Guards, head to satellite stations or look for the blue smoke around the map. The IO also treat Corny Complex as a headquarters, so you’ll find more there. And wherever you find them, you’ll also find their IO tech weapons. You can learn more about those in our Season 7 weapons guide. Body Scanners are located at every satellite station too, so as mentioned before, look for the bright red lights on your initial descent to find those stations.

Interact with a dead drop is a challenge you can’t really practice until the dead drop object appears this Thursday, so we’ll have a guide for that shortly. Lastly, you’ll need to speak to any three of four specific NPCs, including Rick Sanchez, Marigold, Maven, and Special Forces. We’ll have a separate guide for that one shortly as it requires you do quite a bit of traveling.

You may have noticed this season’s Legendary Quests aren’t repeating singular objectives anymore, as they have been for a few seasons now. On top of that, the Legendary Quests seem to be more story-focused, at least here in the early weeks. It’ll be interesting to see how Epic continues to dole out these weekly challenges in Fortnite between now and mid-September when Season 7 comes to an end.

In the meantime, you can check out a lot more on Fortnite Season 7, like a full explainer on this season’s Battle Pass, a guide on how to unlock Superman, and a look at the Week 1 Alien Artifacts.

Jim Ryan, the CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, found himself in some hot water with the gaming masses after a quote that seemed to dismiss older games. However, in a recently published interview with Axios, Ryan says he didn’t mean to “be disrespectful to our heritage” and simply put his foot in his mouth.

The infamous quote in question was from a 2017 interview with Time Magazine. Ryan was speaking about being at a Gran Turismo event where entries in the franchise from all generations of consoles were being shown. “And the PS1 and the PS2 games,” Ryan said, “they looked ancient, like why would anybody play this?”

Just before saying that, Ryan commented on backwards compatibility, a contentious topic now considering PlayStation’s lackluster approach compared to Microsoft’s all-encompassing take on the feature. “When we’ve dabbled with backwards compatibility, I can say it is one of those features that is much requested, but not actually used much,” said Ryan.

Speaking to Axios, Ryan has said that he is “a little bit frustrated at still being hit over the head with this one,” in regards to the Gran Turismo quote. “The point I was trying to make–obviously not very well–was just how great the PS4 version looked and how far the series had evolved,” Ryan continued.

Regardless of whether or not Ryan meant to be dismissive of games from older PlayStation consoles, that certainly seems to be the intent of Sony. While the Xbox Series X and S can run games dating all the way back to the original Xbox, the PlayStation 5 can only run PlayStation 4 games via backwards compatibility.

However, that’s not exactly a problem for most players since simply getting your hands on a PS5 is still a struggle. Ryan also recently commented on the ongoing hardware shortage, saying that PS5 production would see a sizable increase over the summer.