Author: Trafficblast

Teenager Spends Nearly $20,000 In Twitch Donations Using Mother’s Debit Card

It’s something of a nightmare for parents these days: You wake up only to discover your bank account has been drained by your children spending money online. We’ve seen it happen with microtransactions in games, but one teenager managed to spend close to $20,000 through Twitch donations.

Speaking to Dot Esports, the teenage boy’s mother revealed that over the course of two weeks in June, he donated more than $19,870 in Twitch donations using her debit card, and these donations went to both career Twitch streamers as well as professional athletes like Falcons quarterback Kurt Benkert.

Nearly all of the money was returned to her bank account by contacting the firm Xsolla, which Twitch uses for payments. The son is now limited to an hour of gaming per day and must also pursue activities outside and with his family.

Children’s easy ability to spend small amounts of money over time, which turn into huge bills, is hardly new. Back in 2014, Apple agreed to pay at least $32.5 million in refunds as a result of children making in-app purchases. A few years later, Microsoft refunded parents for an $8,000 bill after their son racked up charges playing FIFA on Xbox.

Daily Deals: Save $1000 on this TCL 4K HDR TV

Welcome to Sunday. We’ve got a nice little bundle of deals for you today, and kicking things off is a TCL 4K HDR TV that’s $1000 off right now. That is a giant amount of savings, on a very good TV. If that’s not for you, check our the other sales happening across the web, including some amazing Sennheiser earbuds, the Sega Genesis Mini and more.

Deals for August 9

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More Video Game Deals

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X-Men: The Animated Series Producer Has Had ‘Talks’ with Disney About a Revival

During a virtual Wizard World panel last Friday, X-Men: The Animated Series producer and director Larry Houston addressed the lingering rumors of there being a possible decades-later revival of the series on the horizon.

“We’ve had talks [with Disney], but that’s about it,” Houston shared. “We’ve made conversation and it’s up to them to make the decision, but we’ve let them know that we’re all available for whatever they want to do in the future.”

Houston, who is retired at the moment, added that he would love to return “if we could do a special, a one-off episode, or a five-part episode. Whatever they wanted to do if we had all the original team. That’s what I would come out of retirement for.”

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X-Men: The Animated Series is arguably the most beloved version of the X-Men on TV. As a FOX Kids animated series, it had a successful five-season run from ’92 to ’97 and featured a core team similar to that of the ’90s comics: Wolverine, Gambit, Beast, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Rogue, and Jubilee, in the uniforms that fan favorite artist Jim Lee created for them.

Last year, Marvel was sued over the show’s theme song, for copyright infringement due to the song’s similarities to the theme of a Hungarian cop show from the ‘80s called Linda.

All five seasons of X-Men: The Animated Series can be viewed on Disney+.

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Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.

Disturbing Myths & Folklore That Inspired The Witcher 3 | Lorescape

Lorescape tells the stories behind video games that you never may have noticed had a deeper meaning or a real-world influence. Whether we’re exploring mythology or political figures that inspired games like BioShock, The Last of Us’s mysterious Ish, or the family conspiracies in The Sims, Lorescape will always bring new surprising, interesting, or unsettling meaning to your favorite games.

The first episode of Lorescape dives deep into some of the most unsettling and disturbing legends and real stories that inspired The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, including Botchlings, Alps, Plague Maidens, and Noonwraiths.

WB’s Gaming Division, With Rocksteady and NetherRealm, May Not Be For Sale

A new statement from WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar could suggest that the Warner Bros. Interactive gaming division, which includes studios like NetherRealm, Avalanche, and Rocksteady, may not be sold, for now.

Kilar sent out a WarnerMedia organization update on Friday, August 7, and he gave extensive updates as to the future plans of the company, as well as to who will be leading certain divisions.

In the letter, he mentioned that “Warner Bros. Interactive remains part of the Studios and Networks group.” Furthermore, speaking to Deadline, Kilar also stated that, “we have a very strong interactive team of about 2,000 software developers that tell interactive stories; the opportunity to go global with that is very, very big as well.”

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It’s important to remember that this could change at any time and this could just be Kilar talking up the gaming division to make it look good to potential suitors, but it could also be taken as WarnerMedia valuing what its gaming division can bring to the company in the future.

Warner Bros. Interactive and its fans have a lot to look forward to in the near future, as Rocksteady has begun teasing the big reveal of its Suicide Squad game that will take place at DC FanDome on August 22, 2020.

Additionally, there are reports that Warner Bros. Games Montreal’s next Batman game will also be shown at DC FanDome, and that it will feature the Court of Owls. WB Games Montreal has also been slowly teasing their new game, but no official announcement has happened as of yet.

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Alongside these new DC games, a Harry Potter RPG is also reportedly in the works.

If the sale were to go through, a potential buyer would not own characters like Batman or Harry Potter, but they would be able to negotiate licensing deals so the studio’s could continue to develop games based off the beloved IP.

Some potential interested parties include Microsoft, EA, Activision, and Take-Two.

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Longtime Street Fighter Producer Yoshinori Ono Leaves Capcom

More than two decades after beginning his work on the Street Fighter franchise and leading it through several console generations, executive producer Yoshinori Ono is leaving the company.

Ono made the announcement via his Twitter page on August 9, stressing that “Capcom staff in the new generation” will be responsible for leading the Street Fighter brand moving forward and that he is looking forward to experiencing the series as a player rather than a developer now.

“I’ve been trying to contact those whom I’ve gotten to work with in the past about my resignation,” Ono added. “However, it’s quite difficult to reach out to all of [the] people I’ve associated with throughout my career for almost three decades, so I’d like to humbly ask your kind understanding. When the opportunity comes, I’d like to extend warm greetings and my appreciation to those individuals and companies I’ve had a chance to work with.”

For good measure, Ono added a Shoryuken yell at the end of his note to replace the one fans would usually get in-person, had the pandemic not disrupted the fighting game community this year.

Ono contributed to several other projects outside of Street Fighter over his years at Capcom, including Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite and Devil May Cry. He is also extremely active on Twitter, though nearly all of his posts have been about Street Fighter.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League: New Steppenwolf Design Revealed

Director Zack Snyder took to VERO today and revealed a new design for Darkseid’s herald Steppenwolf, the villain from Justice League played by Game of Thrones’ Ciarán Hinds.

Snyder shared the new upgraded Steppenwolf, who will appear in the Snyder Cut of Justice League, with the comment: “Just working today pulled this out of the editorial sorry he’s Low resolution but I’ve seen him in all his hi-Rez glory and he’s a thing to behold  quick question… how many f@*ks do you think he gives ???”

Here’s the Steppenwolf image that Snyder posted!

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Looking for a full explainer on this vicious villain and what he means to the Justice League in the comics? Here’s everything you need to know about Steppenwolf!

Originally, Steppenwolf was meant to be a part of David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, as the movie’s villain, Enchantress, was supposed to be under the control of a Mother Box and Steppenwolf was to be prepping an invasion with a boom tube.

Zack Snyder’s cut of Justice League is coming to HBO Max in 2021, and will be a big part of DC FanDome on August 22 along with the cast and creators of The Batman, Wonder Woman 1984, and more.

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Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.