Starting off, Blizzard will eliminate the previous character limit of three per account. At launch, players can make up to 10 characters per realm; that works out to 50 across all Classic realms.
On top of that, Blizzard announced it will open four more Classic servers to help what are expected to be potentially lengthy queues at launch. The four new servers can be seen below. All the names are pretty good, but “Bigglesworth” probably takes the cake.
New WoW Classic Servers
Name
Type
Timezone
Incendius
PvP
Eastern
Bigglesworth
PvP
Pacific
Old Blanchy
Normal
Pacific
Westfall
Normal
Eastern
For those lucky enough to be playing WoW Classic early, Blizzard said if players see servers marked with “Full” or “High” population, they should try to play on any of the new realms.
“We urge players on realms marked Full or High to plan to play on one of these new realms to avoid the longest queues, and to help spread the player population as evenly as possible and provide the best play experience for everyone,” Blizzard said.
WoW Classic bills itself as “Azeroth as it was.” Blizzard says players can expect a “faithful recreation of the original World of Warcraft,” featuring character models, combat mechanics, and skill trees that are as they were more than 10 years ago. Access to WoW Classic is included with the standard WoW subscription fee.
The sequel to Suicide Squad that’s being directed by Guardians of the Galaxy’s James Gunn has landed another big-name actor. Deadline reports that Nathan Fillion is joining The Suicide Squad in an unspecified role. It would be just the latest time Gunn has cast Fillion in one of his movies, as Fillion also had parts in Guardians of the Galaxy, Slither, and Super.
He has some experience with superhero movies, too, as he voiced Green Lantern in the animated movie Justice League: Doom and others. Fillion is perhaps best known for his roles in Castle, Firefly, and Serenity. He also plays Edward Buck in the Halo video game series and Cayde-6 in Destiny. Fillion also appeared as Nathan Drake in an Uncharted fan film.
The new Suicide Squad movie is a “total reboot,” and not a sequel to David Ayer’s 2016 film. Gunn wrote the script and will direct the movie. He reportedly signed on to the movie in the midst of his fallout with Disney, though Gunn has since been re-instated to direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
The Suicide Squad enters production in September and is slated to hit theatres in August 2021. It stars a number of actors from the original, including Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag, in addition to newcomers like Idris Elda, David Dastmalchian, and Steve Agee.
Normally, New Releases highlights five of the biggest games launching on a given week, but there’s just too much on the horizon to limit ourselves this time. We’ve got new games from respected developers like Patrice Désilets’ Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey and Remedy’s Control. We’ve got horror games like Blair Witch and The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan. Nintendo is bringing the Switch-exclusive Astral Chain and a new mobile adventure with Pokemon Masters. On top of all that, the MMO crowd can relive the glory days with World of Warcraft Classic.
Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey — August 27
Available on: PC
Ancestors comes from Patrice Désilets, known for his work on the Assassin’s Creed series, and you’ll definitely be doing plenty of climbing and leaping since this game puts you in control of an ape clan in Africa. Your goal is eat, drink, sleep, and just survive in a dangerous world full of predators until you evolve. To do this, you’ll have to level up, procreate, and pass traits onto new generations of your clan.
More Coverage:
Control — August 27
Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC
The latest game from Alan Wake and Quantum Break developer Remedy gets its name from the Federal Bureau of Control, a fictional government agency that handles cases where the laws of physics and conventional science just don’t add up. Enter protagonist Jesse Faden, who can fling bad guys and float around using her psychic powers. She’s infiltrated the FBC to find her missing brother, and she’ll have to shoot her way through a few men in black to find him.
More Coverage:
World of Warcraft Classic — August 27
Available on: PC
If you’ve been yearning to return to an older version of WoW, Classic is exactly what you’ve been waiting for. Classic looks and plays the way WoW did during version 1.12 (the Drums of War update), a time before The Burning Crusade even launched. WoW subscribers get access to Classic at no additional cost.
More Coverage:
Pokemon Masters — August 29
Available on: iOS, Android
It may be a Pokemon game, but Masters won’t ask you to catch ’em all like Sword & Shield. Masters is set on the island region of Pasio, where trainers battle alongside a single Pokemon, and these duos are known as Sync Pairs. You can recruit Sync Pairs to your side and engage in 3v3 battles as you seek to become champion.
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Astral Chain — August 30
Available on: Switch
If you know Platinum Games’ portfolio of titles like Bayonetta and Vanquish, then you know what to expect from Astral Chain. Your police offer protagonist is chained to a living weapon known as a Legion, and the two of you can swing around the battlefield to battle monsters in stylish combat. As you might be able to guess from the name, you can even travel to the Astral Plane to discover where the monsters originate.
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Blair Witch — August 30
Available on: Xbox One, PC
Layers of Fear developer Bloober Team is revisiting the cult classic movie franchise with this canonical video game entry, featuring the studio’s signature psychological horror flavor. You play as a cop looking for a missing boy in the famously haunted Black Hills Forest. At least you have your canine companion Bullet to help sniff out any witches.
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The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan — August 30
Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Blair Witch isn’t the only horror game dropping this week. Man of Medan is the first entry in The Dark Pictures, a new anthology series from Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games. Like with Until Dawn, your choices in Man of Medan can completely change the outcome of the story, a tale which involves teens on a ghost ship in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean. You can experience the spooky story in singe-player, pass the controller around for local co-op, or try online multiplayer, where the story actually splits into different characters’ perspectives.
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August is at its end, so the next episode of New Releases will take a look at what the new month is bringing to the table. September has big-name shooters like Gears 5 and Borderlands 3, plus reimagined classics like The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening on Switch.
28 new minutes of Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 gameplay was shown this week at Gamescom, giving us a closer look at combat, traversal, dialogue, mission structure, and Hardsuit Labs’ take on nightlife in a vampire-ridden Seattle.
The demo, which you can watch in full above, covers the same area seen during E3, but with a few diversions, different choices, and different ways to kill. As noted in the video, the gameplay is from a pre-alpha build.
It begins in the playable character’s apartment, which features a massive cork board covered with Seattle-area news and sticky notes. From there, the demo takes us through the streets of Seattle at night to begin a mission to find a thinblood vampire deep in an “underground jungle” of sewer passages full of enemies. Along the way, we’re introduced to a few side characters, notable locations, abilities, and combat options.
The official D23 poster for the Black Widow movie has been revealed by Marvel Studios’ Director of Visual Development & Concept Artist, Andy Park – showing off a first look at the cast, specifically the Taskmaster.
Shared in a post on Twitter, Park said, “BLACK WIDOW!!! Official D23 poster I had the honor of painting. She’s very near & dear to me since it’s the gazillionth time I’ve concept designed/painted her. What a cast & crew!” Park finished the tweet by tagging the starring cast members of Black Widow, including Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, and Rachel Weisz.
The Persona video game franchise has set a new sales record. Developer Atlus announced in a blog post (translated by VentureBeat) that the entire series has now surpassed 10 million copies sold.
This figure counts copies sold in the mainline series, which has so far spanned five entries, as well as the spin-offs. Atlus did not provide a breakdown of sales by title, but it was already announced that Persona 5 alone had shifted 2.7 million copies.
The new 10 million figure comes after Persona publisher Sega announced in its 2018 financial report that the series had reached 9.3 million copies shipped as of October 2018. The release of certain Persona games in Japan and Persona Q2 worldwide since then surely helped the figure grow to 10 million.
Also in the blog post, Atlus said fans can look forward to an upcoming news event for Persona 5 Royal in the near future. Royal is an updated version of the Persona 5 that is slated for release in October on PS4. The game is expected to be a hit, in turn boosting the series sales even higher.
Following Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox and its many fan-favorite properties, The Simpsons made its debut at Disney’s D23 Expo in Anaheim this weekend, where Simpsons creator Matt Groening assured a fan that, despite reports to the contrary, Apu would not be written out of the show. When asked whether Apu would appear on The Simpsons moving forward, Groening reportedly said, “Yes. We love Apu. We’re proud of Apu,” according to Variety.
Even if Spider-Man does indeed leave the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tom Holland is coming back to play the character again in a third movie following the box office smash Spider-Man: Far From Home. Holland appeared at the Keystone Comic-Con in Philadelphia this weekend (after his separate appearance at Disney’s D23) where he confirmed there is “definitely more to come” for Spider-Man movies featuring him in the lead role, according to GameSpot sister site ComicBook.
In fact, Holland pointed out that he and the creative team have already pitched a third Spider-Man movie. It was previously confirmed that Far From Home writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers will return for the third movie, but it’s unknown if director Jon Watts will come back as well. For what it’s worth, it was recently reported that Marvel is now trying to hire Watts for another movie.
Whatever the case, Holland said the new Spider-Man movie will be “very different,” but whether or not that’s due to Spider-Man’s exit from the MCU is unknown.
“We sat down with some of our creatives. We pitched Spider-Man 3, which is going to be something very special, it’s going to be something very different,” Holland said.
Holland also spoke about his future as Spider-Man, and he spoke about Marvel in the past tense with Sony as his future.
“I’m just so grateful that Marvel changed my life and allowed my dreams to come true and Sony allowing me to continue living my dream,” he said. “It’s a crazy week and it’s never been done before so we’ll see how it goes and it’ll be as amazing and as fun.”
Last week, news broke that Disney and Marvel could not agree on terms regarding the future of Spider-Man movies. Sony holds the movie rights to Spider-Man, and years ago Sony and Disney agreed on terms to have Spider-Man join the MCU, beginning with Captain America: Civil War. That deal was never expected to last forever, and now it seems it is coming to an end.
Sony has a history of producing its own Spider-Man movies, as the company made the original Star Wars films starring Tobey Maguire and later the Amazing Spider-Man franchise with Andrew Garfield.
Back in July, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige talked about how the next Spider-Man movie will “have to do something completely different” due to the events of Far From Home. If you’ve seen the movie, you know what he’s talking about.
It is no surprise that Sony wants to make more Spider-Man movies with Holland, as Homecoming and Far From Home were enormously successful at the box office. Homecoming made $880 million at the box office, with Far From Home bringing in $1.11 billion to surpass Skyfall ($1.108 billion) to become Sony’s highest-grossing movie ever.
Even with Spider-Man leaving the MCU, Disney will continue to benefit from the character as it gets 100% of the money from Spider-Man merchandise. (Disney paid Sony a reported one-time $175 million for the merch rights, in addition to an annual royalty fee around $30 million)
In addition to Spider-Man, Sony is investing in Holland with the Uncharted movie where Holland plays a younger Nathan Drake. The movie recently lost director Dan Trachtenberg, but Holland is still on board and the movie aims to start shooting in early 2020.
One of the biggest entertainment stories of the month unfolded earlier this month when it was reported that discussions between Marvel and Sony about the future of Spider-Man movies broke down. Years ago, Sony–which holds the theatrical rights to Spider-Man–and Disney/Marvel cut a deal that allowed Spider-Man to appear in MCU movies, starting with 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. It was reported last week that Disney went to Sony in search of more favourable terms, but the two sides couldn’t agree, according to reports. Now, Marvel boss Kevin Feige has spoken more about the matter, saying he never expected the deal to run forever and strongly suggesting that Spider-Man is officially gone from the MCU.
“I’m feeling about Spider-Man gratitude and joy,” Feige told Entertainment Weekly. “We got to make five films within the MCU with Spider-Man: two standalone films and three with the Avengers. It was a dream that I never thought would happen.
“It was never meant to last forever. We knew there was a finite amount of time that we’d be able to do this, and we told the story we wanted to tell, and I’ll always be thankful for that.”
Among the long list of unanswered questions about the dispute between Marvel and Sony is if Spider-Man: Homecoming and Far From Home director Jon Watts will come back for the third new Spider-Man movie starring Tom Holland. According to Deadline, Watts’ deal with Sony was only for those two movies, the latter of which made $1.11 billion worldwide, surpassing Skyfall to stand as Sony’s highest-grossing movie in its history.
Deadline reports that “it’s no certainty” that Watts will return for the third movie, adding that Marvel is looking to hire Watts for a new movie presumably unrelated to Spider-Man.
Holland appeared at the Keystone Comic-Con in Philadelphia this weekend where he confirmed he’ll return as Spider-Man again. He also said he and his team pitched Spider-Man 3, which he described as a film that will be “very different” from the others.
“I’m just so grateful that Marvel changed my life and allowed my dreams to come true and Sony allowing me to continue living my dream,” he said, as reported by GameSpot sister site ComicBook. “It’s a crazy week and it’s never been done before so we’ll see how it goes and it’ll be as amazing and as fun.”
In its own statement, Sony said the news about the fallout between it and Disney has been “mischaracterized.” One part of the drama involved Feige’s involvement as lead producer on Sony’s Spider-Man movies, which reportedly will not continue for the next movie.
“We are disappointed, but respect Disney’s decision not to have him continue as a lead producer of our next live-action Spider-Man film,” Sony said. “We hope this might change in the future, but understand that the many new responsibilities that Disney has given him–including all their newly added Marvel properties–do not allow time for him to work on IP they do not own. Kevin is terrific and we are grateful for his help and guidance and appreciate the path he has helped put us on, which we will continue.”
Marvel series producer Jon Favreau said he is hopeful that Sony and Marvel can come to terms, but that might not happen. Deadline’s sources said, “It has gotten so bad that some wonder if it would even be possible for them to rethink things and come to terms on Spider-Man.”
Even if Disney and Sony can’t agree on a new deal, the House of Mouse will continue to benefit from Spider-Man as it currently receives 100% of merchandise sales from Spider-Man.
Whether or not Spider-Man stays in the MCU, Marvel is planning loads more superhero movies. At D23 this past weekend, the company announced even more shows for Disney+, including Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and Moon Knight.
The first poster for Disney+ series WandaVision was released at D23 Expo 2019.
This poster was given to fans attending the convention, and website DiscussingFilm tweeted a snapshot of the first look at the Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen-starring series.
