Author: Trafficblast

It appears Lucasfilm is gearing up to make some announcements about Star Wars: Episode IX. The company has confirmed that a panel dedicated to the upcoming film will be held during the Star Wars Celebration event in Chicago next month.

Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and director J.J. Abrams will appear on the panel, but that’s all we know for sure. The panel will feature “surprises and special guests,” according to the latest episode of the Star Wars Show. It’s unknown if any of the cast will appear on the panel or if we’ll finally get a trailer.

The panel will take place on Friday, April 12, and thankfully it’ll be streamed live. Episode IX is the final instalment in what’s called the “Skywalker Saga.”

It was originally expected to be directed by Jurassic World’s Colin Trevorrow, who had a different vision. Abrams, you may recall, directed 2015’s The Force Awakens.

Episode IX was initially announced with a May 2019 release date, but Lucasfilm delayed the film to December following the change of directors. It may be for the best, as Disney already has a massive release in Avengers: Endgame coming in late-April.

Episode IX brings back Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, and John Boyega, while Keri Russell, Dominic Monaghan, and Richard E. Grant are making their Star Wars franchise debuts with the new film.

It’s not just Episode IX that may get revealed at Star Wars Celebration. The new third-person Star Wars game from Apex Legends developer Respawn, Jedi Fallen Order, will be formally unveiled at the show–so keep checking back for more!

Following the Overwatch League that launched in 2017, Activision is creating another city-based professional gaming league focused around Call of Duty. ESPN has more information about the league, including how much it may cost to set up a new franchise. According to sources speaking to ESPN, Activision is charging a franchise fee of $25 million per team. That’s higher than the reported $20 million fee that Activision charged for Overwatch League teams.

The report says existing Overwatch League team owners get first dibs on negotiations for Call of Duty teams in their existing home markets.

ESPN’s sources said Activision Blizzard executives have recently sat down with potential buyers; none were named outright, but some are said to be established Call of Duty pro teams and those who are already invested in Overwatch League.

The new Call of Duty pro league is rumoured to begin in 2020, though Activision has yet to make any official announcements. The company has not commented on ESPN’s report about the franchise fee and other details.

Activision already operates the Call of Duty World League, but this new league would be more significant, and, as mentioned feature a city-based structure like the Overwatch League and traditional sports leagues around the world.

After a debut season that Activision deemed successful, the Overwatch League’s 2019 season began in February. The league added eight new teams and almost 100 new players for the new season. It has teams in cities around the world, in places like London, New York, Boston, Seoul, Shanghai, and Atlanta. The players earn a minimum salary of $50,000 USD per year, and they stand to make much more from competitive earnings, along with endorsement deals.

The Overwatch League attracted big-name investors, including New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and New York Mets owner Jeff Wilpon.

The Call of Duty franchise is set to return in 2019 with a new game that, unlike 2018’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, will feature a single-player campaign.

A new update for Epic’s popular battle royale game Fortnite will introduce a button that allows players to undo a purchase. This is above and beyond Epic’s earlier plan to introduce a refund token system. With the “undo” button, players will be able to do just that–undo a purchase. However, there is a small catch.

After making a purchase, you can undo it within a five-minute time window. Another thing to be aware of is that you won’t be able to use the undo functionality if you start a match after the purchase.

Explaining the new feature on Reddit, an Epic engineering developer said, “We neither want to add friction for players nor do we want to benefit from accidental purchases or players regretting a purchase.”

“As an ongoing iteration, we are going to introduce an ‘undo’ button to the store page that allows you to easily refund without using up a token within a 5-minute time window, assuming you haven’t started a match since purchase,” it added.

There is no word on when the “undo” button will be added to Fortnite.

As a free-to-play game, Fortnite relies in part on microtransactions for its sustained growth and to fund new features and content over time. The game reportedly makes lots and lots of money from microtransactions, and it’s nice to see the developer now taking steps to help those who accidentally buy something.

In other Fortnite news, the game’s new 8.10 update is out now–you can see the full patch notes here to find out everything that’s new.

Overwatch‘s newest hero, Baptiste, will arrive for everyone next week. Blizzard announced today that Baptiste will launch on the game’s live servers on March 19.

Here’s a new sizzle reel that Blizzard released to hype the announcement:

Baptiste has been available on Overwatch’s PTR for a while already on PC, but this will be the first time that he’s available for everyone on all platforms.

Overwatch’s 30th hero, Baptiste is a combat medic who serves as a support class in Blizzard’s hero shooter. His primary weapon is the Biotic Launcher, which is a burst-fire rifle that fires three rounds at a time. His secondary fire heals allies. He also jump extra high thanks to his powerful Exo Boots.

Check out the video in the embed above to see Baptiste in action.