Trafficblast – Page 8445

Quantic Dream Intends To Become A Multiplatform Developer And “Boutique Publisher”

Quantic Dream has never been a first-party studio, despite its deep association with the PlayStation brand ever since the release of Heavy Rain in 2010. With recent PC ports for the aforementioned title, plus Beyond: Two Souls and the upcoming release of Detroit: Become Human, the French developer is looking to break away from Sony’s platform to develop and publish games for other systems.

Earlier this year, NetEase Games, the gaming division of Chinese internet giant NetEase, acquired a minority stake in Quantic Dream–hot on the heels of investing $100 million into Bungie to create non-Destiny games. While David Cage and Guillaume de Foundaumiere maintain control of the studio, the money invested by NetEase will go to “support the studio’s vision of becoming a global, multi-franchise entertainment company, and to develop advanced technologies and games for the future.”

The fruits of this labour have already been seen with the PC ports for Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls arriving on the Epic Games Store, with Detroit: Become Human releasing later this year. Now, in a recent interview with DualShockers, studio head David Cage has detailed the company’s intentions to break away from PlayStation exclusivity to “work on different platforms and reach players all around the world”.

“After having worked exclusively with PlayStation for 12 years, we thought it was the right time for us to put our money where our mouth is,” Cage revealed. “We also felt that the landscape would change in the coming years, with the emergence of new platforms, 5G and Cloud Play.”

Not content to simply release its own games on other platforms, Cage also shared Quantic Dreams’ aspirations to become a “boutique publisher” over the next few years, working as an independent publisher by “backing few titles and championing originality and high quality, while providing tech and industrial support.” This came to fruition through the studio’s investment from NetEase, with Cage explaining that the Chinese giant “understood the ambition we had for the studio. We felt there were some very interesting strategic synergies between our companies.”

As for the transition into becoming a publisher, Cage goes on to say that Quantic Dream “felt there was room for a new publisher that would have an ‘ethical’ approach, offering fair deals and not taking ownership of IP.” So far the studio is “really pleased with the result” of its work on the PC ports for Epic Games Store. As the company’s first foray into publishing, Cage revealed that he’s “very pleased with Heavy Rain’s current figures, which align with our expectations.”

With new platforms like Xbox Scarlett, PlayStation 5, and Google Stadia on the horizon, Cage has made it clear that Quantic Dream is not “exclusive to any platform anymore. So yes, unless there are some specific exclusivity deals on a title-by-title basis, all our games will be released on all platforms at launch.”

A Live Action Aladdin Sequel Is Being Discussed, But It Won’t Be A Straight Adaptation Of Return Of Jafar

The new, live-action version of Disney’s Aladdin has been a major success for the studio, making over $1 billion at the global box office and currently sitting as the fifth highest grossing film internationally for the year. Now, it sounds like a sequel is in the planning stages.

Speaking to SYFY WIRE, producer Dan Lin says that the studio would “love to” make a sequel, saying that “we feel like these characters have more adventures in store.”

Of course, the original animated version of Disney’s Aladdin already has a sequel: The Return of Jafar, a straight-to-video affair set a year after the original. However, a live-action sequel would probably deviate heavily from the 69-minute, poorly-received original.

“Like with Aladdin, it will not be a straight remake of any movie that’s been made before,” Lin says, “so we’re looking at ‘where’s the best way to go with these characters.’”

The live-action Aladdin stayed very close to the original animated film in some respects, and drifted from it in others: Iago the parrot doesn’t talk in the new version, for instance. Return of Jafar is less well-known than the original 1992 blockbuster, and would require an overhaul to work as a sequel to the new Aladdin.

Lin also said that he believes director Guy Richie and star Will Smith would be likely to return: “even before the box office success, they said it was the best filmmaking experience of their lives.”

Win* A Fire Emblem: Three Houses Bundle

This bundle can be yours! Photo by Angela Lang.

Now is your chance to take home a Fire Emblem: Three Houses grand prize bundle that includes the Fire Emblem: Three Houses Seasons of Warfare Edition, a Nintendo Switch console and Rayvol Travel Carrying Case. Four lucky runner ups will also get the Fire Emblem: Three Houses game.

How can you be one of the lucky winners? Please fill out the form below after reading the official rules of the giveaway and accepting our terms and conditions.You also have the option of doing additional actions, like checking our review or following us across social media, to get extra entries to increase your chances of winning.

If you have trouble seeing the form please check this link.

Remember to enter before 11:59 p.m. on Aug. 25 and head to our comment section to let us know why you would like to win this bundle. Good luck!

Nintendo is not sponsoring or endorsing this promotion.

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw Review

In spacefaring sci-fi shows and movies – eg Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica – there are two very different kinds of space combat: the slug-fests where battleships duke it out with massive broadsides, and the fast, twitchy dogfighting of fighters buzzing around them. 2015’s Rebel Galaxy is an excellent RPG built around the former, and now its prequel spin-off, Rebel Galaxy Outlaw, is an action game that specializes in the latter. It’s a flashy, modern revival of the gameplay style of classics like Wing Commander: Privateer and Freelancer, and it even all but eliminates the most annoying part of dogfighting with a creative and entirely optional piloting assist. The campaign missions are stretched over an open region of space that’s probably two sizes too large, but there’s more than enough going on to make Rebel Galaxy Outlaw a stellar single-player game.

Splinter Cell Might Come Back in an Unexpected Way

Despite not having a mainline game in some time, Ubisoft hasn’t forgotten about Splinter Cell. Even Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot still talks about a possible return for Sam Fisher, but it might not be on a traditional video game platform.

Speaking with Chinese video game publication, Gamer Sky, Guillemot spoke briefly about a possible new Splinter Cell game. However, he stressed that any new Splinter Cell title from Ubisoft could be in the form of an experiment on different devices.

“On Splinter Cell there will be some new type of experiences, but more on different devices,” Guillemot said in a video interview. “So, we are working a lot on the brand today to come back at one point.”

Best Universal Remote 2019: Take Control of Your Smart Home

The proliferation of home theater components and gaming consoles has led to an explosion of remote controls that often wind up scattered across the coffee table. This is valuable real estate that is better suited for pizza boxes, coffee mugs, frothy beverages, and magazines. While it’s true that most remotes that come with a TV can control other products, functionality is always limited and the process for teaching codes and commands to the main remote is often tedious and frustrating. So what can you do to solve the multiplying remote crisis? You’ll want to get the best universal remote.

With a single click, the best universal remotes switch your entire home entertainment center from playing your PS4 to watching Netflix on a 4K streaming box—and the remote will even take care of switching video signals and turning off consoles for you. What’s more, the best universal remotes these days can even control air conditioners, smart lights, and thermostats (assuming they’re compatible). If you have been struggling to master your domain, the best universal remote could be just the thing you need.

IGN at Gamescom 2019: Schedule for Gameplay Demos, Interviews, and More

Gamescom, the world’s largest gaming convention is mere days away, and we’re expecting huge reveals, demos, news and more from the biggest game publishers and developers around the world. And IGN will be able to bring all to you live from the showfloor.

There are tons of big news opportunities to tune into, which will run down in this post, but of course IGN will have our own livestream, bringing you 28 hours of streamed content straight from the showfloor plus much more. We’re also proud to reveal that we are the official studio partner of Gamescom 2019, bringing you comprehensive coverage of the world’s largest gaming event.

IGN’s massive Gamescom streaming plans include streams in both English and German. From Gamescom’s Hall 7 showfloor, IGN U.S., U.K., and Germany hosts will be hosting in-depth interviews and game demos, showcasing exclusive gameplay, and bringing you reports straight from the showfloor.

Netflix’s Wu Assassins: Season 1 Review

This is a mostly spoiler-free review for all 10 episodes of Wu Assassins, which premiered August 8 on Netflix.

Starring renowned martial artist and movie star Iko Uwais (The Raid films, The Night Comes for Us), Vikings’ Katheryn Winnick, and Sons of Anarchy’s Tommy Flanagan, Netflix’s curiously brutal Wu Assassins is almost what would happen if someone rebooted John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China without the Jack Burton character. Or the smirky B-movie charm.

When the fists and feet fly — and the thrown knives get caught and the fired bullets get dodged — Wu Assassins is the fierce and formidable fighting series that Marvel’s Iron Fist should have been. The skirmishes slyly lean into the supernatural, allowing a food truck chef (Uwais) to become infused with the might of a thousand warrior monks so that he can protect San Francisco’s Chinatown from evil elemental warlords. But when the paint dries and all we’re left with is the human drama, the series sags and the story sometimes strains to keep us invested.

This Homemade Fire-Breathing Metal Nintendo 64 Is Everything We Want In A Console

This custom-built, flame-shooting Nintendo 64 console might be the coolest thing you see today.

The system, made by BitHead1000, is a full refit of an N64 that strips out all non-essential components, replaces the outer casing with a new custom-built metal replica, and allows the player to shoot flames from their system.

The video below contains the entire build process sped up. We wouldn’t recommend trying this at home unless you’re a professional.

[embedded content]

By the end, Bithead1000 has a full working system – you can watch him play Banjo-Kazooie on his newly built console – but at the press of a button the system can shoot out twin arcs of flame, making this the most metal Nintendo 64 we’ve ever seen.

It even has a metal cut 3D ‘N’, like the system’s logo, that spins on the front as you play, complete with a red backlight. It’s an extremely cool build.

You can support Bithead1000 on Patreon.

Legion Series Finale Review

This review contains spoilers for the series finale of Legion, aka Season 3, episode 8, “Chapter 27.”

It’s hard to know what to say about a series like Legion ending. There’s an impulse to wax nostalgic on the sum of its parts; to gloss over the bits and bobs that do not work in order to consider whether the plane was or was not well-landed. Does it all just come down to the ending, after all the complicated, wildly outlandish, and totally kookaroo stuff we just watched over the last three seasons? Did any of it matter? Was that entirely the point?

Legion’s goals were always simultaneously simple and wildly complicated. Series creator Noah Hawley wasn’t interested in telling a typical comic book origin story — he just wanted to have some trippy, existential fun with a bunch of incredibly game actors. This is why the story of David Haller appealed to him: the son of Professor X/Charles Xavier is the most powerful mutant of all time, but no one knows where his powers truly originated. Were they because of his father, the monster in his head, or the mental health issues that seemed to swirl around the lot of it? It wasn’t so cut and dry. It was a dissection of creative talent and mental health: how much of the control over these things actually belongs to us? In this world, the usual social binaries need not apply because our hero was actually a superpowered villain who really just wanted to be good. And so…our deliriously tripped-out journey into David’s mind began, and began again, and restarted, and got turned over on its head and sent on a quest for control and dominance between a “bad guy” and a “good guy” who were slowly trading places.