In October 2020, EA Sports announced that it would not release NBA Live 20 and instead focus on making a new basketball game for next-generation consoles.
Despite that announcement, it seems EA may still have something in store for NBA Live 20. The ESRB recently rated NBA Live 20 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, but not next-gen consoles.
It’s curious that NBA Live 20, which was thought to be canceled, would receive a rating from the ESRB if EA did not plan to release it in some form. We have reached out to EA in an attempt to get more details on the situation. It is also possible this is some kind of clerical error on the ESRB’s behalf. Keep checking back for more.
The series has had a tumultuous history: Back in 2012, NBA Live 13 was cancelled just six days before it was due to be released. NBA Live 20 never actually surfaced, though–gameplay footage was never shown, so it’s unclear how far along development the title was.
As it stands, 2018’s NBA Live 2019 is the most recent entry in the series–and it was pretty good. The franchise competes with 2K’s own NBA 2K series, which is the top-seller in the licensed simulation-based NBA series.
Video streaming site Twitch has removed the PogChamp emote after its face, Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez, made controversial comments about the violence at the US Capitol on Wednesday.
“We’ve made the decision to remove the PogChamp emote following statements from the face of the emote encouraging further violence after what took place in the Capitol today,” Twitch said in its statement on January 6.
“We want the sentiment and use of Pog to live on–its meaning is much bigger than the person depicted or image itself–and it has a big place in Twitch culture. However, we can’t in good conscience continue to enable use of the image,” the statement continued.
Twitch said it will work with its community to create a new emote for the “most hype” moments on Twitch. The PogChamp emote displayed Gutierrez’s surprised face, and it’s used in Twitch chats as a quick way to communicate a feeling of surprise or excitement.
Some popular Twitch personalities and internet celebrities weighed in on the news, including Jenny Nicholson and Sean Plott.
Good opportunity to create some kind of little creature for pogchamp, a cute cartoon twitch mascot. Name is Pogchamps but pronounced the way I imagine a little french guy would say it, like peaux-shoms
Yo @Twitch suggestion for PogChamp: create a database of streamer and/or general faces. Whenever someone types PogChamp, display one of those faces at random. Would give a really nice crowd feel to a chat spamming PogChamp and allow the meaning to be tied to all of us instead.
Arcade1Up has typically used CES as its announcement venue for upcoming at-home arcade cabinets–and as of 2020, pinball machines–and that isn’t changing now that CES 2021 has gone virtual. GameSpot can exclusively reveal that Arcade1Up will be showing off its newest machines on January 11.
What Arcade1Up has not revealed yet is what those machines will be. Last year, it brought a trio of pinball machines to CES, including Marvel, Star Wars, and Attack From Mars variants, along with systems like NBA Jam. The majority of the systems shown at the event are now available, though the pinball machines were bumped from the end of 2020 into early 2021.
The brand began with traditional-style arcade games using buttons and joysticks, but it is now offering light gun games as well. Thus far, they’re limited to the Buck Hunter series, but the technology is likely to be implemented into other cabinets, too–Area 51, Time Crisis, and House of the Dead are among the most often requested games. Additionally, a seated Outrun cabinet, complete with a matching bench and four racing games, is available, with a stand-up variant also in the works.
Arcade1Up also began dabbling outside of the arcade entirely with its Infinity Game Table, a virtual board game platform loaded up with Parker Brothers and Hasbro games. The device’s successful Kickstarter campaign raised over $1 million, with an estimated release date around March.
Over the past few years, there have been numerous reports claiming that NBC’s famous TV show The Office may get rebooted. However, series creator Greg Daniels has now poured a little cold water on that, while also offering a glimmer of hope and optimism.
Asked flat-out by Collider if a revival of The Office was in active development right now, Daniels said, “No.” However, the writer and producer said it could happen sometime down the track. Perhaps more exciting than that, Daniels also said he would want to be personally involved if it did happen.
“It’s not impossible for sure. I would want to be involved, and I’ve got two other shows I’m working on right now,” Daniels said.
It’s good to hear that Daniels would want to be involved, as he had an instrumental role in the first run of the show for its earlier seasons. He stepped away to work on Parks and Rec before returning to The Office for its ninth and final season.
Daniels is currently working with The Office star Steve Carell on the Netflix show Space Force, which is returning for a second season. He’s also a key creative on Amazon’s sci-fi comedy Upload, which was also renewed for a second season. He sounds like a very busy man, so if a new version of The Office is to happen, it probably wouldn’t get off the ground soon.
Twitch has announced that it will remove the popular “PogChamp” emote from its service following a tweet made by Ryan ‘Gootecks’ Gutierrez, whom the emote is based on, which “encouraged further violence” following today’s insurgency on Capitol Hill.
Today, during the legislative confirmation of the electoral votes for Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 Presidential Election, President Trump’s supporters rushed, and briefly occupied the Capitol building, forcing Senators and House legislatures to barricade themselves or leave the premises for safety.
During these events, Gutierrez tweeted a statement about the events on Capitol Hill that appeared to call for further violence during the takeover.
The ‘PogChamp’ Emote
‘Will there be civil unrest for the woman who was executed inside the Capitol today or will the #MAGAMartyr die in vain?” Gutierrez tweeted.
In a statement to IGN from a Twitch spokesperson, the company announced, “We’ve made the decision to remove the PogChamp emote following statements from the face of the emote encouraging further violence after what took place in the Capitol today.”
The company added, “We want the sentiment and use of Pog to live on — its meaning is much bigger than the person depicted or image itself — and it has a big place in Twitch culture. However, we can’t in good conscience continue to enable use of the image. We will work with the community to design a new emote for the most hype moments on Twitch.”
We’ve made the decision to remove the PogChamp emote following statements from the face of the emote encouraging further violence after what took place in the Capitol today.
Gutierrez is a Street Fighter player whose surprised face reaction became the basis of the ‘PogChamp’ Twitch emote. It is a popular emote often used by commenters when surprising moments happen on stream, particularly in fighting games.
Responses to Gutierrez’s tweet from commenters condemned his statement as insensitive and commenters wondered if Twitch would take down the ‘PogChamp’ emote in light of the tweet and Twitch has agreed to do so. Popular streamers already moved before Twitch to ban the emote from their own private stream channels.
Twitch says it will work with the community to create a new emote, but has not revealed what that process will entail.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has changed how conventions operate–or don’t–and this certainly applies to CES 2021. The event won’t be held in-person this year, but there will still be plenty of virtual presentations and announcements beginning Monday, January 11. The biggest names in technology will share news on upcoming products and services, including gaming brands. Here is everything you need to know about CES 2021, including the dates, key presentations, and expected announcements.
When is CES 2021?
CES 2021 will take place online from January 11 through January 14, and events are scheduled throughout each of these days. It kicks off with a keynote presentation from Verizon CEO and chairman Hans Vestberg on January 11 at 3:30 PM PT / 6:30 PM ET.
You can see a full list of when each event kicks off on the official CES website. Keep in mind that some of the scheduled events during these CES 2021 dates are actually replays of previously-streamed presentations. This is the case for every single event on January 14.
Key events
Below, we’ve roundup up some of the most intriguing events to look out for, as they’re likely to be filled with news on hardware, games, and more. Some are specific to gaming or esports, while others have a broader technology focus that might include gaming content.
January 11
Verizon Keynote: 3:30 PM PT / 6:30 PM ET
January 12
Next Generation Television in Focus: 4:30 AM PT / 7:30 AM ET
CTA’s Vision for the Tech Industry: 5:15 AM PT / 8:15 AM ET
GeForce RTX: Game On: 9 AM PT / noon ET
AMD Keynote: 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET
Do More with Intel’s Power of Computing: 9:15 AM PT / 12:15 PM ET
RazerStore Live: CES Edition: 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET
Sony Electronics of North America announcements: 10:45 AM PT / 1:45 PM ET
Creating an Esports League From the Ground Up: 12:15 PM PT / 3:15 PM ET
January 13
TCL Global CES 2021 Spotlight Session: 4:30 AM PT / 7:30 AM ET
Microsoft Keynote: 6 AM PT / 9 AM ET
The Technological Revolution of Esports: 12:15 PM PT / 3:15 PM ET
Expected gaming announcements
While much of the news for CES 2021 is being kept under wraps, we do already have some companies teasing announcements during the event.
Arcade1Up news
Arcade1Up tends to make a lot of new announcements at CES, and even though it will be online-only this year, that isn’t changing. The brand’s marketing and communications lead David McIntosh teased news on Twitter, but stopped short of saying what category the systems would be in. He also didn’t share the exact date for the news, but we should learn more soon.
Rumored new GeForce laptop GPU
One of the juiciest rumors revolves around ASUS, which already teased an upgrade for its TUF gaming laptops as well as its Republic of Gamers line. It appears a new system could include a still-unannounced mobile version of the RTX 3080. The traditional version is extremely difficult to find, which could make this laptop a hot-ticket item. Nvidia will be hosting its own presentation on January 12, and it will feature “the latest innovations in gaming and graphics” according to its official website. These presentations could feature a game demonstration using the company’s GeForce processors.
Razer news
RazerStore Live will be held on January 12, and it will feature product announcements and promotions along with prizes for those watching. It has only been a few months since Razer’s last big presentation, but there will be news on “exclusive products” during the stream.
Developer and publisher SNK has announced that the reveal of King of Fighters XV and Samurai Shodown‘s Season Pass 3 has been postponed, though a reason hasn’t been confirmed.
SNK had planned to officially unveil King of Fighter XV this week. The reveal of the latest entry in the King of Fighters series was to be followed by an announcement of the new characters coming to Samurai Shodown as part of the game’s Season Pass 3 bundle. However, the company said it will “inform our fans as soon as the new date and time has been confirmed.”
King of Fighters XV was teased in December, with SNK calling it the “most ambitious KOF yet.” The studio shared no gameplay at the time. King of Fighters creative director Eisuke Ogura revealed King of Fighters XIV newcomer Shun’ei is the franchise’s latest protagonist. As such, Shun’ei has a new outfit (shown off in some concept art), as well as an overhauled moveset.
In other Samurai Shodown news, SNK plans to introduce a few brand-new characters with the Season Pass 3 package. This includes the previously teased guest character from the company’s Neo Geo classic fighter The Last Blade and some unannounced others. Fans interested in playing a bunch of retro SNK games can also pick up the Neo Geo MVSX home arcade system from Amazon, a cabinet that comes preloaded with 50 classic Neo Geo titles.
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Ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show next week, Samsung has revealed its new line of 4K and 8K TVs set to launch later in 2021.
All the models announced today make use of brand new QLED technology that Samsung is branding “Neo QLED.” The biggest benefit is that Samsung has managed to reduce the size of the LEDs that act as the backlight in its display, allowing for drastically more dimming zones and the reduction of blooming. Traditional LED displays require backlighting for brightness, but the size of the LEDs has often led to distracting light bleed in scenes where only small portions of the image are overly bright or dark. This is one of the biggest benefits of OLEDs, which are self-emissive.
According to The Verge, Samsung is promising up to “up to almost 30,000 tiny LEDs” and “up to 2,500 dimming zones,” which will make backlighting in this year’s models noticeably better than those from 2020. Samsung announced to 8K models (the QN900A and QN800A) as well as numerous 4K models (QN95A, QN90A, and the QN85A). The number of dimming zones does decrease with less expensive models, but Samsung hasn’t detailed each individually yet.
Samsung QN900A 8K Neo QLED TV
What will be common across the range is support for HDMI 2.1, which will be useful for your new Xbox Series X, Series S, and PS5 console. HDMI 2.1 support means you will be able to enjoy games at 4K and 120hz where supported, as well as eARC and auto low-latency mode. Samsung is also introducing a game bar to these new models that lets you change game-specific TV settings without diving into the menus. The new sets will also support aspect ratios of 21:9 and 32:9, which might come in handy for PCs hooked up to the displays.
Samsung is exploring MicroLED with its extremely premium displays, but those are still reserved for a very niche market. Samsung announced two models that join the existing 100-inch MicroLED TV on sale now, coming in at 99-inch and 88-inch models. These new sets won’t require professional installation, unlike the 110-inch model.
Samsung has not shared pricing and availability details for its new TVs, but you can likely expect them later this year as is custom with the company.
2020 was a rough year for many of us, but there was another crisis going on that you probably weren’t even aware of: a time crisis. Unfortunately, no light guns will save us here. According to TimeAndDate.com, the Earth spun faster than in 2020 than in any other time in the past 50 years, with the 28 shortest days since 1960.
As reported in the Telegraph, experts and astronomers warn that timekeepers may need to introduce a negative leap second in order to stay accurate. Leap seconds–which are used to accommodate differences between atomic time and less-precise solar time–have previously been used to solve such issues. However, a leap second in 2012 wreaked havoc across the Internet, with Reddit, Yelp, Mozilla, and others reporting Y2K-esque crashes due to the shift.
Some experts have called for an end to leap seconds entirely, opining that they are a relic of a past age, since much of the world relies on atomic time today. The World Radiocommuncation Conference may end up abolishing the practice in 2023, though it’s unclear how likely this is to happen. Earth’s rotational speed varies considerably due to the motion of tides, the atmosphere, and the planet’s core, as well as other factors, such as snowfall on mountains.
Season 2 of Solar Opposites, Hulu’s show co-created by Rick & Morty’s Justin Roiland and Mike McMahan, will be hitting the streaming service with eight new episodes on March 26. This is obviously great news for Solar Opposite fans, but also exciting news for Rick & Morty fans–a show notorious for long delays between seasons, made all the more kinda frustrating knowing there are dozens on their way in the coming years. Check out the expletive-laden trailer for Solar Opposites’ second season below.
Based on the trailer, Season 2 is a bit of a reset on Season 1–centered around a team of four aliens who escape their exploding home world only to crash land into suburban America, and their efforts to leave Earth have been thwarted, or at least temporarily delayed. The small squad are evenly split on whether Earth is great–“Korvo (Justin Roiland) and Yumyulack (Sean Giambrone) only see the pollution, crass consumerism, and human frailty while Terry (Thomas Middleditch) and Jesse (Mary Mack) love humans and all their TV, junk food, and fun stuff.”
