Author: Trafficblast

SpongeBob: Sponge On The Run, which had been delayed from its May 22 release until August 7 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has been delayed again–and now it won’t release in cinemas at all.

Variety is reporting that the film, which is the third cinematic SpongeBob SquarePants feature, will now debut as a premium rental in early 2021 ahead of an eventual release on CBS All Access, the streaming company of ViacomCBS (disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company).

Exact dates have not been set, but Marc DeBevoise, chief digital officer at ViacomCBS, told Variety that “this launch will be perfectly timed with our continued expansion and planned rebranding of the service in early 2021.” The rebrand is currently being planned.

All previous seasons of the show will also be available on the streaming service.

This is far from the first movie aimed at kids to go digital in the wake of COVID-19–Scoob had a digital release, as did Trolls: World Tour, to great success. The new Artemis Fowl movie from Disney, meanwhile, went straight to Disney+, as did the movie Onward in several regions.

A new SpongeBob Squarepants game remake, Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated, is available now. You can read more in GameSpot’s review.

Lin-Manuel Miranda has shared some new insight on the upcoming Disney Plus release of Hamilton coming up on July 3, including how it’s censored for the family-friendly platform.

Hamilton on Disney Plus is a recording of a Broadway performance from 2016, featuring the original cast–and the original swears–minus two. The movie version is rated PG-13, so it is only allowed to have one use of the word “f**k.” The actual play has three, so two “f**k”s were censored or changed.

In the Yorktown scene, the line “I get the f**k back up again” will be muted on the swear word. The other censor will be on the “Southern mother f**king Democratic Republicans” line.

“I literally gave two f**ks so the kids could see it,” Miranda said of the changes.

Also on Twitter, Miranda confirmed that the Disney Plus version of Hamilton will include a one-minute countdown clock in the middle to represent the intermission. Obviously, you can pause at any time to pee or get a drink or a snack from the comfort of your home, but this is a nice touch all the same.

The original plan was to release Hamilton in theatres in October 2021, and this would have included a 10-minute intermission. But the movie’s theatrical release was canceled due to COVID-19. Miranda said he’s hoping to be able to release Hamilton in theatres one day.

Hamilton on Disney Plus will be released at midnight PST on July 3, which works out to 3 AM on the US east coast. That’s 8 AM in the UK on July 4 and 5 PM on July 4 in Sydney, Australia. Miranda also confirmed that Hamilton will be available on Disney Plus for the foreseeable future. Some had wondered if it would be a limited engagement, but Miranda confirms it will live next to titles like A Goofy Movie indefinitely.

Miranda also confirmed on Twitter that, sadly, not all of the alternate language subtitles will be available from the beginning. Because the release was moved up by more than a year, the team wasn’t able to get the work finished, but these additional languages will be added in due course.

Miranda also said Hamilton on Disney Plus will feature crowd noises like laughing and clapping.

For more on Hamilton, check out the movie’s first trailer here to get a glimpse at what to expect. In other news, Miranda has announced he’s staying in business with Disney for a new animated musical.

Disney is said to have paid $75 million USD to buy Hamilton’s movie rights. Unlike Cats, Rent, or Mamma Mia, Hamilton’s movie is a film version of the play recorded during two productions with the original cast in 2016. The $75 million that Disney is said to have paid for the movie is reportedly the highest fee in history that a studio paid for a finished film.

It could no longer be said that gaming is having a #metoo moment, but rather an ongoing #metoo movement. Amid a new wave of allegations surfacing on social media, those who have previously named their abusers are now demanding to know why the platforms that host known abusers’ content have not acted to take them down–with Twitch at the center of the controversy.

With multiple tweets claiming that Twitch has been given information on how some of their big-name partners are using that platform to abuse women, and chosen not to act on it, streamers and fans called on Twitch and its CEO Emmett Shear to step up.

Shear has now shared an internal Twitch email sent on the subject, while Twitch has put out an official statement, but some don’t think the statement is enough.

Now, people are calling for a Twitch blackout to take place on Wednesday 24, asking streamers to stay off Twitch for 24 hours.

Others are going further by pledging to cancel their ongoing Twitch subs and donate to streamers directly, without giving Twitch money through subscriptions or bits.

While the movement is centered around allegations that Twitch partners and affiliates have used their position to abuse women, those involved are also concerned about the amount of racism, homophobia, and transphobia that often goes unchecked by big-name streamers.

In the past, Twitch has banned the accounts of streamers whose abuse has been investigated and charged by authorities, such as Thomas Cheung, who was arrested after an undercover sting in Atlanta to catch child predators. However these punishments haven’t always been strict across the board.

In December 2018, Australian streamer MrDeadMoth was arrested and charged with assault after appearing to attack his partner during a live Twitch stream. Despite the arrest, however, MrDeadMoth was initially only given a 14 day suspension from Twitch–which was later lengthened in response to community outcry.

Even as parts of the community call for a blackout, Twitch is no-doubt preparing for an influx of new streamers after Microsoft announced the end of Mixer. Twitch has extended the olive branch to streamers left without a platform, with a tweet addressing the Mixer community.

Apple is increasing its support for third-party controllers that can be used for gaming or navigation with Apple TV. The next tvOS update coming to Apple TV will bring support for Microsoft’s newer Elite Series 2 controllers as well as the Xbox Adaptive Controller.

The Apple TV allows input from Xbox One and PlayStation 4 controllers as of last year, with the update bringing two of Microsoft’s newer controllers into the fold. Notably, the Elite Series 2 controller adds a number of additional buttons that can be mapped, compared to the standard Xbox One controller.

The Xbox Adaptive Controller is one of the most accessible controllers out there, making it a welcome addition to any gaming platform. Microsoft has even said in the past that the accessible controller should be available on any platform, including their competitors’, as part of “the democratization of accessibility.”

Apple has also announced that support for these two controllers, as well as keyboard and mouse input, would be coming soon to the iPad.

The WWDC20 showcase will continue until June 26, and can be followed on Apple’s website, YouTube or via the Apple Developer app for iOS.

The next season of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale has been pushed to 2021 after COVID-19-related delays, The Wrap reports. The fourth season of the TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel was originally scheduled to premiere in the Fall.

After Season 3 finished airing in August 2019, the series returned to film Season 4 in Canada this March, with Elizabeth Moss preparing for her directorial debut. However, production was soon halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has shut down film and TV productions around the world.

As to when in 2021 we should expect the new season, the timeframe is still unclear. The show hasn’t got a date for when it can resume filming yet, which will be key for Hulu to pinpoint the show’s new premiere window.

Canada, where The Handmaid’s Tale shoots, is starting to open up to production again, with Manitoba, Quebec, and most of Ontario (excluding Toronto) now open for filming. However even with this green light, production can’t resume immediately–each region has implemented its own restrictions to be followed while filming, leaving production companies with some work to do to make sure their sets are compliant.

Netflix recently announced that filming would resume on the second season of The Witcher on August 17, after the UK lifted some of its restrictions on film and TV production at the end of May.

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Electronic Arts is ramping up its efforts in the world of sports games. EA Sports VP Cam Weber said during an EA “fireside chat” that the company is looking to release more sports titles annually than in the past. Currently, EA’s annual release slate covers new Madden, FIFA, and NHL games.

“We’re looking a little further ahead into the future. We definitely do expect to increase the number of sports games we launch each year,” Weber said.

Weber teased that EA Sports is currently working on multiple unannounced new sports games, and some of them are “familiar faces.”

“We have a number of new games in incubation or early pre-production. Some of them are familiar faces you might remember, and others are completely new,” he said.

The “familiar faces” line is intriguing. It’s widely rumored that EA will bring back its EA Sports UFC franchise this year, while another report mentioned that EA is reviving its golf games. The company for years worked with Tiger Woods on the PGA Tour series, but after the two companies split apart, EA signed PGA Tour player Rory McIlroy for a new franchise. However, it fizzled out after one release.

EA used to release NBA games, too, but the company canceled NBA Live 20 and announced it would bring the franchise back on next-gen consoles.

Also during the call, Weber said EA Sports is looking to “reach new players” with all of its sports games, and this could include releases in the “mid-core” and “casual” markets.

Weber said for mobile in particular, there is a “lot of growth ahead of us.” He said players can expect more “connected progression” between mobile and console/PC.

Weber pointed out on the call that EA currently has more than 400 sports league licenses, which help the company make sports games that appeal to players around the world.

Sports games are big business for EA, so it’s no surprise to see the company look to do even more in the space. In 2019, Madden NFL 20 was the third highest-selling game of the year in the US, only behind NBA 2K20 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. In addition to sales of the base EA Sports games, EA makes a huge amount of money from their Ultimate Team modes and microtransactions.

In other EA news, CEO Andrew Wilson recently spoke about how the company may be getting into the world of betting, but probably not anytime soon.

The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster continues to grow with the addition of Min Min, the ramen fighter from Arms. She’ll join the roster on June 29. That’s not the only returning character of the day either: Crash is back in Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time.

Meanwhile, Play For All keeps on trucking. Play For All is multi-week summer gaming celebration and charity event featuring special guests like Troy Baker, Danny O’Dwyer, and many familiar GameSpot faces. We’ve already raised thousands of dollars for #BlackLivesMatter and COVID-19 Relief Efforts thanks to all of you! Be sure to tune in every day between 12PM and 2PM PST for interviews, livestreams, and everything in between.

Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson shared some high level details on where the company is headed in the future, and betting could be on the horizon–but not anytime soon.

During a “fireside chat” with the company’s top management, Wilson said EA’s goal on a longer timeline is to reach players where they are as part of a bigger ambition to expand the company’s reach.

“On a slightly longer term time horizon, there are another couple of vectors we think will drive growth,” Wilson said. One of these is betting in some capacity, Wilson said.

“The skills and capabilities and experience that we have over 40 years in this industry has broad application to a great many industries,” he said. “You should think about the future of the consumption of sport. You should think about the future of consumption of entertainment. You should think about how we engage players throughout their daily lives with other things that are interesting to them that adjoin their gaming experience–one of those things might be betting.”

“These are on a longer-term time horizon but we have a number of projects incubating inside the company right now as we think about that one that five-year-plus time horizon.”

Wilson added that another growth vector for EA is its incredibly ambitious Atlas cloud service, which the publisher has more than 1,000 developers currently working on. Specifics about Atlas remain mysterious, but Wilson said the company will share this service with not only EA’s internal teams, but also outside studios. Additionally, EA could offer Atlas to other industries, markets, and categories outside of gaming, Wilson said.

On the subject of betting, EA has been criticized in the past for how some of its games use loot boxes, with some politicians and industry-watchers commenting that EA has created virtual slot machines. Whatever the case, these types of mechanics are incredibly lucrative already for EA. The company has made nearly $800 million from microtransactions–including Ultimate Team mode–already this year.

Betting on video games is a growing industry. Numerous Las Vegas bookmakers are currently taking bets on various competitive video games. It only makes sense that EA–and presumably other top publishers–would be looking at betting a growth category as they look to the future.

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