The PlayStation 5 will have an optional setting to slash the amount of power the next-generation console consumes in standby mode.
In a blog post, Sony announced it’s working with the United Nations as part of its “Playing For The Planet” initiative, which aims to mobilise gamers to take an active role in combating climate change. Part of this effort involves partnered companies like PlayStation examining ways they can reduce their carbon footprint, and Sony is committing to working sustainable features into its new console’s design.
“The next generation PlayStation console will include the possibility to suspend gameplay with much lower power consumption than PS4 (which we estimate can be achieved at around 0.5 W),” writes Jim Ryan, President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment. “If just one million users enable this feature, it would save equivalent to the average electricity use of 1,000 US homes.”
The NPD Group has released its projections for the best-selling games of 2019, and the predicted top-seller should be no surprise. NPD Group analyst Mat Piscatella said he expects Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to be the best-selling game of 2019 in the US.
If that happens, it would mark the 9th time in 11 years that a Call of Duty game was the year’s top-seller. The only two times in the past 11 years that a Call of Duty game was not No. 1 for the year in the US was 2013 when it was Grand Theft Auto V and 2018 when it was Red Dead Redemption 2.
The NPD report goes on to predict that NBA 2K20 will be No. 2 in 2019, improving the franchise’s No. 3 place from 2018. Madden NFL 20 will finish as the No. 3 best-seller for 2019, according to Piscatella. Borderlands 3 and Mortal Kombat 11 will round out the top five, according to the prediction.
The full Top 10 list of predictions for 2019 best-sellers can be seen below.
In terms of consoles, Piscatella says he thinks the Nintendo Switch will end 2019 as the year’s best-selling console. The Switch was the first half of 2019’s best-selling console. Not only that, but it’s the only system in the US that’s growing in sales year over year. With the recent launch of the Switch Lite and the forthcoming release of Pokemon Sword and Shield, the Switch is expected to reach the highest annual unit sales number in the US since the Xbox 360 in 2011.
Across games and consoles, total spending on video games in the US for 2019 is expected to reach $44.6 billion in 2019; that would be up modestly from $42.2 billion in 2018.
2019 Best-Selling Video Game Predictions (US Only)
New Releases has had a few extra-long episodes in September, and this week we’ve put together another one. September has a double dose of Dark Souls-inspired games with Code Vein and The Surge 2, plus the intense run-and-gun action of Contra: Rogue Corps. Nintendo fans can also get their fill with Mario Kart Tour on mobile devices, plus Nintendo Switch ports of Dragon Quest 11 and Ori and the Blind Forest. Footballers can also take a crack at FIFA 20 this week.
The Surge 2 — September 24
Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC
One of two games inspired by From Software coming this week, The Surge 2 is set in a more vertical city than the original, giving you different spaces to explore as you hack away at enemies and bosses. “Hack” is definitely the keyword here, as the limb-targeting system is still very much a big component of combat.
More Coverage:
Contra: Rogue Corps — September 24
Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch
Rogue Corps might be set seven years after Contra III: The Alien Wars, but it’s full of the crazy run-and-gun action you’d expect from the series. You can save the Damned City as a cyborg, assassin, alien, or scientist panda as you play solo or with friends in local and online co-op. Each of those four rogues has their own special abilities too.
More Coverage:
Mario Kart Tour — September 25
Available on: iOS, Android
Mario Kart Tour might be a mobile game, but it still sports a lot of the same courses, characters, items, and custom kart options you’d expect from the series. However, it also includes new courses based on real-world locations like the Eiffel Tower. What’s more, Mario Kart Tour is free to download.
More Coverage:
Code Vein — September 27
Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Code Vein is the other Souls-like game launching this week, and it’s earned the nickname “anime Dark Souls.” Code Vein sets itself apart by letting you customize your character with abilities called Gifts and switch your class on the fly via Blood Codes. You’ll be taking on tough enemies and bosses of course, but thankfully you can battle alongside AI companions and other players online.
More Coverage:
Dragon Quest 11 S: Echoes of An Elusive Age – Definitive Edition — September 27
Available on: Switch
If you’ve been waiting to play Dragon Quest XI on the go, now’s the time. This definitive version of the game lets you switch between modern and 16-bit graphics, which also toggles the soundtrack between symphonic and synthesized. This version also includes new stories and a harder difficulty level called Draconian Quest.
More Coverage:
Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition — September 27
Available on: Switch
Nintendo Switch is also getting a port of Ori and the Blind Forest this week. Once a Microsoft exclusive, this modern Metroidvania puts you in control of the guardian spirit of the forest. The Definitive Edition is that same game, but with new areas to explore and additional difficulty options.
More Coverage:
FIFA 20 — September 27
Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch
FIFA 20 sports new dribbling, tackling, aiming and shooting mechanics, but the biggest addition is Volta football. This takes the soccer match away from big stadiums in favor of smaller games on side streets, which totally changes the pace of the game. But don’t worry, Career mode and Ultimate Team are still very much a part of the action.
More Coverage:
September is coming to a close soon, but October has its own lineup of video games on the horizon. Next week, New Releases will take a top-level look at the new month, which is home to shooters like Destiny 2‘s Shadowkeep expansion, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
The 2019 edition of the Emmy Awards have finished up, and Game of Thrones was the event’s biggest winner overall. The show and its actors took home two awards during the broadcast this evening, but it tallied 10 earlier this month during the Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony for a total of 12 (counting Peter Dinklage’s Outstanding Supporting Actor) awards for its final season. The 12 wins ties the show’s record-setting 5th season in 2015 which also won 12 awards.
Game of Thrones took home the highly coveted Outstanding Drama Series award. The other nominees included Better Call Saul, Bodyguard, Killing Eve, Ozark, Pose, Succession, and This Is Us.
Peter Dinklage, who plays Tyrion Lannister on Game of Thrones, won for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama series. This is his fourth Outstanding Supporting Actor win for Game of Thrones, and that’s a record for most wins in the category. He surpasses Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul, who won three times for his performance as Jesse Pinkman on the hit AMC TV show.
Game of Thrones Season 8 won 10 Creative Arts Emmy awards earlier this month in categories such as Outstanding Sound Editing, Outstanding Special Visual Effects, Outstanding Fantasy Costumes, and Outstanding Makeup, among others. With the Best Drama win and Peter Dinklage’s win, Game of Thrones tallied 12 Emmy award wins for its final season, which ties the show’s 2015 record.
“These last 10 years have been the best years of our lives and for everyone who worked on it, I can’t believe we finished it–and I can’t believe we did it,” showrunner David Benioff said when accepting the award, as reported by Deadline. “We did it all together and it’s over and we shall never see your like again.”
Over its eight seasons, Game of Thrones picked up 161 nominations and 59 wins, which is a record for any show in history. The Outstanding Drama win for Season 8 is the show’s fourth win in that category, following wins in 2015, 2016, and 2018.
The comedy Fleabag created by and starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge won Outstanding Comedy Series, while Waller-Bridge herself won for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series and Writing for a Comedy Series for Fleabag.
Game of Thrones led the 2019 Emmys race with a record-breaking 32 nominations, and had already won 10 Creative Arts Emmys leading into the Primetime Emmys ceremony, dominating below-the-line categories including casting, costumes, main title design, makeup, score, editing, sound editing, sound mixing, special visual effects, and stunt coordination.
Earlier in the night, Peter Dinklage won the Emmy for best supporting actor for his role as Tyrion Lannister, beating his castmates Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Alfie Allen in the category. Supporting actress went to Ozark’s Julia Garner, who beat GOT’s Gwendoline Christie, Lena Headey, Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, and Killing Eve’s Fiona Shaw. Kit Harington lost out in the Lead Actor category to Pose’s Billy Porter, while Emilia Clarke lost out on Lead Actress to Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer.
Tonight during the 71st Emmys, Netflix released a brand-new teaser trailer for the Breaking Bad movie. The new El Camino spot shows Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) sitting in his car, an El Camino, as he listens to a news broadcast about the massacre he fled from.
This means the movie will pick up immediately after the events of Breaking Bad, which is intriguing to think about. Check out the teaser video below.
“Investigators are searching for a person of interest who fled the scene. Anyone with information on this massacre is asked to call the police immediately,” a broadcaster says on the radio.
Very little is known about the plot of El Camino outside of the fact that it will follow Pinkman in the aftermath of the fall of Walter White’s drug empire. In his final scene on Breaking Bad, Pinkman was shown racing away from the compound where he was held captive in his El Camino to an uncertain future. The Breaking Bad movie will explain what happens next.
El Camino comes to Netflix and some theatres on October 11. It was written and directed by Vince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Bad.
Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage is an Emmy-winner yet again. The actor, who plays Tyrion Lannister on HBO’s fantasy show, picked up his fourth Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series win at the 71st Emmy Awards. That is a new record for most wins in that category.
Dinklage was tied with Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul, who played Jesse Pinkman and won three Outstanding Support Actor in a Drama Series awards for his performance in the AMC TV show.
This year is different for Dinklage, however, as Game of Thrones is now finished. In his acceptance speech, Dinklage spoke about the brilliance of Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, and how Dinklage didn’t know what he was getting into at the start of the show.
“I count myself so fortunate to be a member of a community that is all about tolerance and diversity, because nowhere else could I be standing on a stage like this,” the actor said, as reported by Deadline. “It’s been about 10 years, all said and done, from the moment I met [series creators] David [Benoiff] and Dan [Weiss] till now. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I knew that David and Dan were quite brilliant…We did nothing but sweat, we did nothing but laugh. Dave and Dan, we literally walked through fire and ice for you–literally–and I would do it all again in a heartbeat.”
Dinklage won his first Emmy for Game of Thrones back in 2011. He is the only member of the Game of Thrones cast to win an Emmy, though a number of the cast–including Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, and Kit Harington, among others–have received nominations over the years.
For more on the 71st Emmys, head to GameSpot sister site TV Guide.
Despite a polarizing final season, HBO’s Game of Thrones took home the award for Outstanding Drama Series at the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards. Star Peter Dinklage also grabbed a prize, his fourth win for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Which is not only a record for that category, but it still makes him the only Thrones star to win an Emmy acting award for the series.
The night’s other big winner was Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who nabbed Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for her acclaimed Amazon series Fleabag. Jodie Comer, of the Phoebe Waller-Bridge-produced series Killing Eve, won for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series.
Disney was very close to acquiring social media giant Twitter, but the company pulled out at the 11th hour because CEO Bob Iger had a number of particular misgivings.
Writing in his new book, Iger said Disney originally wanted to buy Twitter to help “modernize its distribution,” according to The New York Times. However, Iger ended up calling Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey “at the last minute” to tell him the deal was off, which reportedly stunned Dorsey.
Iger said Twitter was experiencing “troubles” that were too much for Disney to absorb. He also personally reflected that the Twitter user experience, for him, was anything but pleasant.
“The troubles were greater than I wanted to take on, greater than I thought it was responsible for us to take on,” Iger said. “There were Disney brand issues, the whole impact of technology on society. The nastiness is extraordinary. I like looking at my Twitter newsfeed because I want to follow 15, 20 different subjects.
“Then you turn and look at your notifications and you’re immediately saying, why am I doing this? Why do I endure this pain? Like a lot of these platforms, they have the ability to do a lot of good in our world. They also have an ability to do a lot of bad. I didn’t want to take that on.”
The full New York Times interview with Iger is incredibly fascinating; go read it here.
While the Twitter buyout didn’t work out, Iger has overseen four epic-sized acquisitions during his time at Disney. These included the buyout of Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and finally Fox. When Disney bought Star Wars, Iger recalled that Fox boss Rupert Murdoch “was crazed” because Fox already had an in-road with Star Wars as the distributor of George Lucas’ Star Wars films.
“Rupert was crazed that we bought Lucas,” Iger said. “They were the distributor of all of George’s movies, and he was very disappointed in his people. ‘Why didn’t you think of this?'” Iger said.
Disney’s next big movie is Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which hits theatres in December. It wraps up decades worth of storytelling, bringing an end to the Skywalker Saga that began in 1977.
