Author: Trafficblast

Hi-Rez Studios’ free-to-play online battle arena Smite has joined the Epic Store family. To celebrate Smite’s release on the Epic Games Store, Hi-Rez Studios is giving away a bunch of in-game content and sales exclusively for the Epic Store.

Players who download Smite on the Epic Games Store will receive a bundle of in-game content, including five gods, skins, and voice packs worth over $50. Current Smite players who link their Hi-Rez accounts to their Epic accounts will also receive this free bundle.

Cross-play and cross-progression has also been added between the Epic Games Store and all other Smite platforms once players have linked their Hi-Rez accounts.

The two most popular Smite bundles, the Smite Ultimate God Pack and Smite Digital Deluxe Edition 2020, are on sale until May 26. These discounts are exclusive for the Epic Store.

Smite is available to play on PC, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One.

If you haven’t already claimed For The King from the Epic Store as this week’s free game, the application will now require users to use a two-factor authentication to claim this game and free games going forward until May 21.

Epic Games users will need to enable the two-factor authentication setting on their account, with a prompt popping up if users attempt to claim a free game without enabling the setting first.

Epic is bringing in two-factor authentication in order to help protect user accounts from unauthorized access, adding an extra level of security for accounts when signing in.

Last year, Epic was sued after a security breach allowed hackers to access the personal information of users with Epic Games accounts. The lawsuit was centered around Epic’s failure to maintain adequate security measures and notify users of the security breach in a timely manner. While the lawsuit was dismissed, it seems Epic is taking steps to improve account security.

After enabling the two-factor authentication, players can claim a free copy of the strategic RPG For The King up until April 30. The next free games lined up are the famous horror title Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and the action RPG Crashlands, which will be available from April 30 to May 7.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered is coming to Xbox One and PC this week following a month of exclusivity on PlayStation 4. The game releases on April 30, and Xbox One and PC users can start pre-loading right now, or very soon.

Pre-loading is now available on Xbox One, while PC players can begin pre-loading from 5 PM PT. The PC edition is exclusive to Battle.net, and there is no word yet on if it will also come to Steam.

The Modern Warfare 2 Remaster features the entire campaign from the 2009 original with better graphics, textures, and animations. The game includes the campaign only; there is no multiplayer.

The Remaster was developed by Activision’s subsidiary, Beenox. The original game was developed by Infinity Ward, which also created 2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone.

Modern Warfare 2 was memorable, in part, for its graphic and controversial “No Russian” sequence. The mission is featured unchanged in the remaster, and GameSpot’s Phil Hornshaw said it fails now more than ever.

This report has been updated with Universal’s response below.

AMC Theaters says it will no longer show Universal Pictures releases when their cinemas finally reopen due to the studio’s decision to release some their movies early to VOD rather than wait to show them in theaters.

The major theater chain blasted Universal following a report touting how well Trolls World Tour had done on VOD and the studio saying it sees this as a roadmap for other possible releases. With movie theaters shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic — including AMC, which closed down in mid-March — Universal opted to release their Trolls sequel digitally this month rather than wait to release it in cinemas later in the year or next year. It was a big gamble for Universal, as theater owners fumed over the studio’s decision to ditch cinemas, but it reportedly paid off big time for the studio.

What makes digital releases even more appealing to studios is that they retain 80 percent of the profits from a VOD release, which is significantly higher than the 50 percent of profits they take home from box office receipts with theatrical releases. As it turned out, Universal made more revenue from Trolls World Tour after three weeks in digital release than they did from five months of the original Trolls in theaters. While Universal isn’t expected to employ this digital model for huge franchise releases such as a Fast & Furious title because of how much money those movies do typically rake in theatrically, the studio is already embracing it for smaller movies, such as Judd Apatow’s comedy The King of Staten Island, which is now going straight to VOD.

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In a letter sent Tuesday from AMC Theatres chair-CEO Adam Aron to Universal Filmed Entertainment Group chairman Donna Langley, AMC said “Universal’s unilateral actions and intentions have left us with no choice. Therefore, effectively immediately AMC will no longer play any Universal movies in any of our theaters in the United States, Europe or the Middle East.”

The theater chain may be playing a game of chicken with Universal seeing as how the coronavirus is being mulled by many observers as a possible death knell for the theatrical experience. AMC is flirting with bankruptcy, while a new Reuters poll indicates that only 40 percent of Americans are open to attending movies, concerts, amusement parks, or sporting events until a vaccine can be found. Universal, like Disney, is heavily dependent on both movies and amusement parks for business so they are pivoting to streaming options for revenue during this time of crisis.

AMC’s letter, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, went on to state:

“This policy affects any and all Universal movies per se, goes into effect today and as our theaters reopen, and is not some hollow or ill-considered threat. Incidentally, this policy is not aimed solely at Universal out of pique or to be punitive in any way, it also extends to any movie maker who unilaterally abandons current windowing practices absent good faith negotiations between us, so that they as distributor and we as exhibitor both benefit and neither are hurt from such changes. Currently, with the press comment today, Universal is the only studio contemplating a wholesale change to the status quo. Hence, this immediate communication in response.”

The reference to “any movie maker who unilaterally abandons current windowing practices” seems a not so thinly veiled dig at Warner Bros. for pivoting to release Scoob! to premium VOD instead of theatrically.

AMC did go on to say in the letter that they are “willing to sit down with Universal to discuss different windows strategies and different economic models between your company and ours,” but ultimately they found “Universal’s unilateral pronouncements on this issue (to be) unpalatable to us.”

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Universal issued the following statement in response to AMC’s letter:

“Our goal in releasing Trolls: World Tour on PVOD was to deliver entertainment to people who are sheltering at home, while movie theatres and other forms of outside entertainment are unavailable. Based on the enthusiastic response to the film, we believe we made the right move.  In fact, given the choice of not releasing Trolls: World Tour, which would not only have prevented consumers from experiencing the movie but also negatively impacted our partners and employees, the decision was clear.

Our desire has always been to efficiently deliver entertainment to as wide an audience as possible.  We absolutely believe in the theatrical experience and have made no statement to the contrary.  As we stated earlier, going forward, we expect to release future films directly to theatres, as well as on PVOD when that distribution outlet makes sense.  We look forward to having additional private conversations with our exhibition partners but are disappointed by this seemingly coordinated attempt from AMC and NATO to confuse our position and our actions.”

Universal recently rescheduled Fast & Furious 9, Jurassic World: Dominion, and Minions: The Rise of Gru — all major franchises for the studio — for theatrical releases in 2021. The studio’s next 2020 titles include Candyman (Sept. 25), Bios (Oct. 2), and Halloween Kills (Oct. 16).

Our Xbox crew opens the show by talking about Gears Tactics, the new XCOM-style tactical strategy game from Xbox Game Studios that Xbox fans shouldn’t sleep on. Plus: we discuss Xbox’s impressive first-party efforts so far in 2020, what the rest of the year looks like, drama around the WWE 2K franchise, and more!

Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, or grab an MP3 download of this week’s episode. For more awesome content, check out the latest episode of IGN Unfiltered, featuring an interview with Valve’s Robin Walker and Chris Remo about the past, present, and future of Half-Life:

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It’s already an incredibly fun year of Xbox coverage, and the best is yet to come. Join us!

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Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone‘s next big update–the one that takes aim at cheaters and more–is coming very soon. Activision has now confirmed the exact launch timing for the update so you can prepare to start your download right away.

The patch will begin its rollout at 11 PM PT on April 28. This works out to 4 PM AEST on April 28, and April 29 at 2 AM ET, 7 AM UK, and 8 AM EU. The launch timing was confirmed by CharlieIntel.

One of the big new additions with the update is the new player-reporting tool. With the update, players can report people directly from the killcam or spectate mode. The update will also introduce new Gunsmith features, double XP and playlist adjustments, an additional Warzone contract type, and more. Infinity Ward has so far only previewed the patch notes for update, which will be split in two this time around. Check back soon with GameSpot for the full patch notes.

Modern Warfare/Warzone April 28 Patch Timing:

• April 28 — 4 PM AEST / 11 PM PT
• April 29 — 2 AM ET / 7 AM UK / 8 AM EU