PS4 Is Now The Second Best-Selling Console Ever

Sony has detailed its financial results for Q2 2019, which is the three months ended September 30 and revealed the PlayStation 4 shipped 2.8 million units worldwide in this timeframe. This figure is slightly down from Q1 2019, when the console shipped 3.2 million units. However, the figure is enough to make the PS4 the second best-selling console of all time.

As confirmed in July 2019, the PS4 reached the 100 million units shipped milestone and, combined with the numbers from Q2 of 2019, that brings it the total up to 102.8 million units, edging the PS4 past the performance of the original PlayStation. However, the PlayStation 2 remains the best-selling console of all time at over 150 million units.

Overall, it’s been a strong lifecycle for the PS4, which is now in its seventh year on the market. Sony has begun detailing its successor, the PS5, so the clock is ticking for the PS4. Despite this, there are some big games on the way, including Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us 2.

The Last of Us 2 was recently delayed into Spring 2020, with director Neil Druckmann stating the extra time would allow the developer to polish the game. “It was during the last few weeks, as we were closing out sections of the game, that we realized we simply didn’t have enough time to bring the entire game up to a level of polish we would call Naughty Dog quality,” he explained. “At this point we were faced with two options: compromise parts of the game or get more time. We went with the latter, and this new release date allows us to finish everything to our level of satisfaction while also reducing stress on the team.

“While we’re relieved that we won’t have to compromise our vision, we’re disappointed that we weren’t able to avoid this exact situation. We wish we could’ve foreseen the amount of polish we needed, but the size and scope of this game got the better of us. We hate disappointing our fans and for that we’re sorry.”

EA Is Treating Apex Legends As An “Annual Shooter”

During its latest quarterly earnings call, EA revealed its intentions to treat Apex Legends as an “annual shooter.” Respawn’s battle royale game has been on a roll lately, with Season 3: Meltdown seeing Apex Legends reach a playerbase of 70 million, and its publisher has indicated it wants to build on that growth for years to come.

“We have heavily invested in live services the past 10 years,” EA COO and CFO Blake Jorgensen said on the call. “Obviously [Apex Legends] is a new live service which we will invest heavily in to try to continue to grow that business. We view that as an annual shooter franchise effectively and we’re trying to build that as a 10-year business … We’re very excited about the roadmap that the Respawn team has put in place.”

No one at EA clarified what this new designation for Apex Legends means. As a live service game, it’s unlikely–though not impossible–that EA plans to make Apex Legends into its own franchise with new sequels every year as Activision does with Call of Duty and Ubisoft used to do with Assassin’s Creed. It could be that EA plans to have large-scale, meaningful content additions each year. Although this makes the most sense and is in line with trends for live service games, this is speculation on our part.

That said, Jorgensen did reveal what players can expect to see in Apex Legends in the near future. “The key with [Apex Legends]–as is the case with any live service–is test and learn, test and learn,” Jorgensen said. “We’re continuing to add new events in each season to try and understand spending patterns and what people like to spend money on and how much they’ll spend. And we’ll then tune those events over time, so there’s going to be holiday-themed events, like [Fight or Fright], competitive-style events, gameplay-style events, and events associated with new characters or–as you saw in this new season–a new map.”

With Apex Legends being treated as EA’s new annual shooter, the publisher is pushing DICE off of the annual Battlefield and Battlefront track that the studio has been on since 2013’s Battlefield 4. Instead of immediately transitioning to Battlefield 6 or Star Wars Battlefront III, DICE will instead spend the next year focusing on developing new content and providing additional support for Battlefield V and Star Wars Battlefront II.

Ahead of the call, EA released a press release detailing the studio’s success with live service games this past quarter. “Strength in Ultimate Team, The Sims 4, and FIFA Online drove live services performance above our expectations,” Jorgensen said. “Looking ahead, we are doubling down on live services combined with our core franchises. We’re investing in games that people play for longer and engage with much more deeply. This focus will continue to drive growth and profitability for the company through the remainder of this year and beyond.”

Though EA is pushing for more games that will keep players invested for longer periods of time, the publisher isn’t completely done with traditional, single-player games. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order–a single-player game with no loot box microtransactions–is EA’s next major release, scheduled to launch on Xbox One, PS4, and PC on November 15. Fallen Order’s release will also mark EA’s return to putting its PC games on Steam, not just Origin.

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Stranger Things Season 4 Episode Count, Release Window Confirmed

Stranger Things 4 is hotly anticipated after the show’s much loved third season, but you’ll have to wait a while for it to debut.

TVLine has confirmed that the show will start shooting in January 2020, with filming expected to continue until August of that same year. The new season is anticipated to land in summer 2020 at the absolute earliest. The third season debuted on July 4 2019, and if the gap between seasons is as wide as it was between 2 and 3, we could be waiting until 2021.

TVLine has also confirmed the number of episodes this season will feature. Stranger Things 4 will run for eight episodes, which is in line with the first and third seasons, but one fewer than the nine episodes that made up season 2.

The show’s third season was watched by 64 million households in its first month, making it the most successful piece of Netflix original programming ever. The first teaser for the upcoming fourth season hinted at the show moving beyond the boundaries of Hawkins, Indiana, which lines up with how the third season ended.

It’ll be a bit of a wait for Stranger Things 4–if you revisit the previous seasons in the meantime, be sure to check out our guide to the many Easter eggs of Stranger Things 3.

Green Lantern Series Coming To HBO Max

Two new DC TV shows will be coming to the streaming service HBO Max, which launches in May 2020, and both of them will be headed by Greg Berlanti, most known for his work on the CW/DC superhero shows like The Flash.

Revealed at the WarnerMedia investor call, it was announced Berlanti will be working on a few original programs for the service, two of which are based on DC properties.

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The first is Green Lantern, something fans of the CW Universe have been wanting to see for years. There’s no news as to who the Green Lantern will be, when the show will launch, or whether it is a part of the shared universe Berlanti has been working on for years.

Secondly, Berlanti will be working on Strange Adventures, another show based on a DC comic book, revealing that Adam Strange would be returning to the small screen.

This is the second time we’ll get to see a live-action Adam Strange, as the character appeared on Syfy’s series Krypton. Additionally, HBO Max revealed that seasons of the DC CW shows will be available on the streaming service shortly after each season ends.

Call Of Duty League Season Will Kick Off In January 2020 With A Launch Weekend Tournament

Call of Duty League, Activision’s big Call of Duty eSports push, will begin on January 24, 2020. The event will take place over the Call of Duty League Launch Weekend at the Minneapolis Armory, and will see teams competing in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. It’s the first event of what promises to be a major new league for competitive Call of Duty.

The event will see 12 teams play off over three days in five-on-five matches, with a best-of-five format. The exact ruleset will be announced closer to the event. Teams from Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Florida, London, Los Angeles, Minnesota, New York, Paris, Seattle, and Toronto taking part. The Call of Duty League website has further details on the teams competing, and lets you sign up for updates in the lead up to opening weekend.

The Call of Duty Challengers Open will take place over that same weekend, allowing amateur teams to compete in an open bracket tournament that will be determined by a series of online tournaments, beginning next month. There’s a prize pool of over $1 million on offer in the open.

The cost of entry is reportedly $25 million per team, which has prevented eSports organization 1000 Thieves from competing. The specifics of the prize pool have not yet been announced, but expect a major top prize.

If you’re looking to sharpen your own skills in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, we’ve compiled a list of tips for beginners. It’s also useful to know your different perks inside and out. In our review-in-progress of the game, Kallie Plagge wrote that the multiplayer in Modern Warfare “is up to par, with a variety of game types for different kinds of players.”

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Mayans MC: A Death Sets The Stage For War In Season 2 Finale

As Mayans MC barrels toward its Season 2 finale, the titular motorcycle club is in a precarious position. After the Sons of Anarchy brokered a deal between the Mayans and a rival club they are on bad terms with, violence broke out, leaving Coco (Richard Cabral) blinded and Riz (Antonio Jaramillo) barely holding onto life.

Warning: The following contains spoilers for the ninth episode of Mayans MC Season 2, titled “Itzam-Ye.” If you’ve yet to watch the episode and don’t want to have major plot points spoiled, stop reading now.

As dire as circumstances seemed after the altercation, they only got worse in the episode that followed, “Itzam-Ye.” To protect the deal made with the rival club, the Mayans voted against retaliation as it looked like Riz was going to survive the altercation. After the vote, though, he didn’t. Riz is dead, and the vote is null and void. Bishop (Michael Irby) says that much himself when he proclaims it’s time to go to war with the other club.

What he doesn’t know, though, is how Riz died, and it’s that secret that will likely be a significant plot point should Mayans MC continue into Season 3. Upset with the vote not to carry out vengeance against the rival club, Taza (Raoul Trujillo) cut off Riz’s oxygen supply, killing him.

Anyone who’s seen Sons of Anarchy knows that violence like this between fellow club members does not stand. Should Taza’s misdeed come to light–and it obviously will at some point–it’s not going to be pretty. That’s something to think about in the future, though.

For now, war is coming in the Season 2 finale and the Mayans MC is going to be charging into enemy territory looking for blood. It’ll be interesting to see what role, if any, the Sons of Anarchy play in the dispute. After all, they are the ones that first brokered the deal between the two clubs, and it’s their relationship with Irish gunrunners that stands to be destroyed should this deal fall apart, which it’s clearly going to.

Now, it’s just a matter of who else has to die before this dispute is settled. Thankfully, you won’t have to wait long to find out. The Season 2 finale of Mayans MC airs next Tuesday on FX.

Xbox Console Streaming Starts Today

Following the public preview of Project xCloud, Microsoft and Team Xbox are launching the Xbox Console Streaming (Preview) beginning today, and it will allow participants to stream their Xbox One games from their console to a mobile device.

Microsoft’s Principal Program Manager Jonathan Hildebrandt took to Xbox Wire to discuss this new preview program that is now available for Xbox Insiders in the Alpha and Alpha Skip-Ahead rings in the US and UK.

The program currently supports Android phones or tablets running Android 6.0 or higher with Bluetooth 4.0, and a Bluetooth-enabled Xbox One Wireless Controller is required to play.

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