Over the weekend, IGN ran a poll to see which next generation console readers would like to see the most, out of four options – Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and Google.
The poll ran for three full days: Friday at noon through Monday at noon, and received over 40,000 votes.
The winner was Sony, taking over half of the votes at 52.8%, Microsoft coming in second place at 28.5%, Nintendo in third at 14.2%, and Google with only a sliver of the votes at 4.4%.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge has now opened at California’s Disneyland, letting fans of the franchise visit a new planet where the resistance and the First Order are battling for control. Still, while Galaxy’s Edge is firmly planted in the latest trilogy of Star Wars films, care has been taken by the creative minds behind the land to create as unique an experience as possible for everyone who crosses its threshold.
According to Carrie Beck, vice president of the Lucasfilm story group, the crafting of that experience goes back to when the company first started developing Galaxy’s Edge. “When we got to work at thinking about what was the type of place we wanted to go visit, or what the types of experiences were that we wanted to have participating in Star Wars, we thought a lot about how all of us as fans–how all of us as people who admire Star Wars–how we might want to interact with the Galaxy,” she explained while on a panel during a media preview event. “You may want to see yourself as a Smuggler or a Scoundrel. You may want to see yourself as a Jedi, Sith, a Stormtrooper. You can find yourself being drawn to the dark side of the Force.”
In helping visitors find their own stories within Galaxy’s Edge, the team realized the most integral piece of storytelling was the land itself. Galaxy’s Edge is set on the outer rim planet of Batuu, consisting of a forest where the Resistance is camped out, and Black Spire Outpost, a settlement that is being invaded by the First Order.
“[Batuu is] a place of some light routes that ships used to come and go,” Beck said. “But it’s been largely forgotten until we arrive here at the park and we get to discover it at the same time as the First Order and the Resistance are having their conflict here in the land, the day of our visit.”
And as this conflict unfolds, you should expect to come into contact with both sides of the fight. You may be asked to help out the Resistance in spreading messages or grilled for information by Stormtroopers. What you share–or don’t–is up to you. But the key to it all is you aren’t viewed as an outsider during your visit.
“I think what’s really exciting is just to be able to have them react to you as if you’re actually in Star Wars,” Beck continued. “I think, one of the things that’s so wonderful about the films themselves, is that they feel so real, right? And I think that there was always this dream, this wish to be able to be part of that story. And so, being here and being able to interact and to sort of bring that fantasy to the next level is very exciting.”
And as the story unfolds, visitors will see how Batuu connects to the larger canon of Star Wars. Already, there’s a Marvel comic book about Batuu and Black Spire Outpost. What’s more, the planet has been mentioned previously in the novel Thrawn: Alliances and is the focus of the upcoming canonical novel Galaxy’s Edge: Black Spire. Black Spire Outpost was also referenced in the film Solo: A Star Wars Story.
“There have been adventures that we have crafted that take place or take [the] opportunity to locate here, in Batuu and Black Spire,” Beck said. “And I think that’s one of the great opportunities with a place that is fully new, is it allows the opportunity to layer in all of that narrative and give you that sense of discovery.”
And thanks to the setting of Galaxy’s Edge, that sense of discovery can continue for years as the land is built to evolve. “We picked a spot that has yet to [be discovered] in the Star Wars galaxy,” Black Spire Outpost project manager Brent Nikolin told GameSpot. “There’s some references made in Solo and other places, but I think starting from a place that is nowhere but still uniquely Star Wars, you walk in here, you know it’s Star Wars, right? But it’s not a place that we’ve ever been before. [It] allows you some flexibility down the road to do different things.”
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is open at Disneyland now. It opens at Florida’s Walt Disney World Resort on August 29.
Fortnite‘s Week 4 challenges of Season 9 are now live on PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices, which means players across all platforms have another chance to rack up Battle Stars and unlock more of this season’s new skins and other cosmetic rewards. That also means you can now complete another one of this season’s Utopia challenges if you manage to finish all seven tasks from a given week, which will lead you to another secret Fortbyte.
Just as in previous seasons, completing a Utopia challenge will unlock a special loading screen, which will serve as your key to finding a free item hidden somewhere around the game’s map. In the past, this item would be either a Battle Star (which levels your Battle Pass up by one tier) or a Banner (which could be used as a profile icon) depending on how many weekly sets of challenges you completed. Battle Stars are still up for grabs in Season 9, but this time, Epic has replaced the Banners with the aforementioned Fortbytes, which are new collectible to find throughout the season.
There are 100 Fortbytes in total to collect, many of which are tied to their own challenges. Each one looks like a computer chip and unlocks a portion of a larger picture. However, the clue to finding a handful of these Fortbytes lies with the loading screens you unlock by completing Utopia challenges. That’s the case for Fortbyte #91. Contrary to what you may expect, the clue isn’t hidden within the loading screen itself, but rather its description, which reads, “Sandstorm and Scimitar race to the Keyboard King ATM and the winner always gets paid.”
As the description suggests, Fortbyte #91 is found in the ATM by Keyboard King, one of the stores located in Paradise Palms. Make your way to the area and smash the ATM in question to reveal the hidden Fortbyte. If you need help finding it, we’ve marked its exact location on the map below. You can also watch where we go to find the Fortbyte in the video at the top of this guide.
While secret Battle Stars will only appear once you’ve completed their corresponding Utopia challenge, this Fortbyte is available to everyone who has purchased a Season 9 Battle Pass. If you fall into that category, you simply head to the right area and collected it even if you haven’t completed Week 4’s Utopia challenge and unlocked the aforementioned loading screen. If you do need help completing this season’s challenges, however, you can find tips and guides in our complete Fortnite Season 9 challenges roundup.
Epic recently rolled out Fortnite’s 9.10 content update, which introduced another new weapon to the game: the Burst SMG, which comes in common, uncommon, and rare varieties. To make room for it, however, the developer vaulted the Suppressed Submachine Gun. That isn’t the only thing of note to happen in Fortnite recently; players have also discovered a mysterious giant eyeball encased in ice beneath Polar Peak. It’s unclear what this means, but many are speculating it could lead to some kind of community event.
It’s barely June and there are still a whole lot more games to come, but Outer Wilds is currently sitting at the front of the pack for my personal Game of the Year. It’s charming, unique, clever, and full of incredible moments that I don’t want to tell you a damn thing about.
So much of this space-camping-themed exploration game is about getting in your rocket, picking a planet in its expansive but intimate hand-crafted solar system to fly to, and then seeing what mysteries you can piece together for yourself when you get there. It’s full of serene views, exciting thrills, challenging platforming (sometimes in zero-gravity), creative puzzles, and a captivating story told through the ruins of an ancient civilization – and you owe it to yourself to experience all of the above firsthand.
Fortnite remains enormously popular, and the free-to-play Battle Royale from Epic Games is the basis for a brand new Xbox One S 1TB bundle.
The Xbox One S Fortnite Battle Royale Special Edition Bundle includes a controller and 1TB Xbox One S in a deep, “gradient purple” color scheme.
Also included as part of the limited edition Xbox One S is Dark Vertex Fortnite skin set, 2,000 V-bucks, as well as one free month of Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass.
Ahead of Destiny 2‘s Season of Opulence scheduled to go live Tuesday, June 4 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET, Bungie has announced the newest raid coming to the looter-shooter.
Titled Crown of Sorrow, the new six-player raid has Guardians investigating an infested Leviathan in search of riches beyond the Light’s wildest imagination. Emperor Calus beckons you and any other willing Guardians to enter a new activity called the Menagerie, where you’ll “carve your way through ever-changing paths and enemies” on the hunt for secret vaults. You can check out the official trailer below.
The new Season of Opulence is the final piece of DLC in Destiny 2’s Annual Pass. The DLC will introduce new weapons–like Pinnacle weapons, “high-powered, specially designed guns you can only get by completing arduous tasks in specific activities”–and items like the Chalice of Opulence, which sounds like a new introduction to the game’s mechanics. While Season of Opulence may mark the end for Destiny 2’s Annual Pass, Bungie took to Twitter to tease a livestream for Thursday, June 6 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET to discuss “the next chapter of Destiny 2.”
Season of Opulence is available to owners of the Destiny 2 Annual Pass, which retails for $35 USD / $28 GBP / $50 AUD on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
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Dell’s Dads and Grads Sale kicks off today with a 15% off coupon code that works on most Dell and Alienware PCs You’ll find some incredible discounts on Dell G-series, Inspiron, XPS, Vostro, and Alienware desktops, laptops, and monitors, as well as Samsung, LG, Sony, and Vizio 4K HDTVs. More deals will be added to the site later on, but there are already several great deals to choose from already.
E3 2019 formally begins on Tuesday, June 11. Over the years fans have grown accustomed to the weekend prior having a sequence of press conferences and presentations as publishers announce their games and hardware before showing them on a convention floor, but this year the event seems to have expanded yet again.
Several companies have announced their own events for the week prior to E3, getting out ahead of the rush of announcements and staking a claim to their own time to make an impact on viewers. As a result, E3 is almost two full weeks–the first seeded with pre-E3 announcements, and the second consisting of publisher press conferences and convention days. In fact, there’s something happening almost every day until the end of E3.
The wide swath of events is getting so large you may have trouble keeping track, so for your convenience we’ve compiled them all here. Be sure to check out our full press conference schedule for what times to watch the event for more details.
This isn’t a first, as Apple often targets its WWDC event for early June, and its proximity to E3 has been noted as Apple ventured further into gaming offerings on the App Store. But in the overall sequence of E3-adjacent events, it seems to be the first out of the gate. This year’s WWDC announced support for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One controllers for iOS and Apple TV.
Nintendo doubtless has loads to show at E3, but it’s giving more details on one of its biggest franchises its own time slot. Pokemon Sword & Shield, the next main installment in the hit franchise for Nintendo Switch, will have a dedicated presentation on Wednesday morning. It will be about 15 minutes long, but as Nintendo showed in its recent Super Mario Maker 2 presentation, it can pack a lot of details into that amount of time. Check out when and how to watch the Pokemon Direct for more details.
Ubisoft has outlined some of its plans for E3 2019, but has also stated flatly that Beyond Good & Evil 2 won’t be among them. Still, the pre-E3 period won’t be entirely without BG&E news, as the game is planning the next of its Space Monkey Report streams for the Wednesday prior. These have been semi-regular events updating fans on the progress of the game. Ubisoft’s decision to hold back from E3 suggests it won’t be chock full of big reveals, but if you’ve been looking forward to more Beyond Good & Evil, it should provide some interesting tidbits.
Google will make good on its promise to reveal price and launch details for its Stadia streaming service this week, with the first of its “Stadia Connect” presentations ready to debut on Thursday. The company has confirmed that the presentation will outline launch plans, including game announcements and a price reveal. Check out when and how to watch the Stadia presentation for more details.
Just after the Google Stadia announcement, Bungie will be explaining its plans for Destiny 2. The current season of content is coming to a close, and with Bungie now split with publisher Activision fans have wondered what will happen now. The “Next Chapter” announcement will explain these next steps, and given that it’s targeting the announcement right next to E3, it probably isn’t just going into maintenance mode.
Electronic Arts is once again forgoing E3 proper, instead holding a fan-focused event at a nearby location. This year, though, it’s not having a formal press conference at EA Play. It will hold a series of livestreams covering several of its upcoming games, beginning with Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order. Others on tap include Apex Legends and its Season 2 Battle Pass, Battlefield V, FIFA 20, Madden NFL 20, and The Sims 4. Check out how and when to watch EA Play for more details.
Between its Pokemon-focused Nintendo Direct on Wednesday and its E3 Nintendo Direct the following Tuesday morning, Nintendo has one more event during the weekend. It will be hosting a series of tournaments throughout the day on Saturday. The Super Mario Maker 2 tournament promises a lengthy look at the game to be released later in June, while the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament could drop some hints regarding upcoming DLC characters. A Splatoon 2 tournament is also planned to ink up the place.
It isn’t unusual for Apple to debut a new game at its keynotes, but we didn’t expect Minecraft—a Microsoft owned property—to make an appearance and as an augmented reality game no less.
Towards the tail end of Apple’s WWDC keynote, we saw the first-ever gameplay of Minecraft Earth. From what we can tell, it’s an augmented reality mobile game similar to Pokemon Go that can run on both the iPhone XS and iPad Pro 11.
Long before Dark Phoenix, in the summer of 2000, X-Men set the box office ablaze and had the sixth highest-grossing opening weekend ever at that time. That paired with strong reviews from critics and fans alike, changed superhero cinema forever.
When the original was released, it entered the game just after Batman & Robin killed the then-most lucrative big screen spandex saga and as Blade was pointing at comic book adaptations geared more toward niche audiences. But then, X-Men featured well cast characters (Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen as Professor Xavier and Magneto, respectively, remain iconic), dynamic super-powered action, and a serious approach to the themes that have long made these Marvel mutants resonate. It paved the way for Spider-Man to swing and Batman to begin (again) on the big screen. And then, eight years later, Tony Stark met Nick Fury and everything changed once more.