Author: Trafficblast

Following the announcement in November that a Lord of the Rings TV show was in development, some huge numbers have been thrown around. Amazon reportedly paid a massive $250 million just for the TV rights to JRR Tolkien’s classic books, and last month it was reported that the company could spend up to $500 million for the first two seasons. A new story in The Hollywood Reporter has now put the total price as high as $1 billion.

According to THR, the huge price tag is due to the fact that Amazon is required to make five seasons of the show. It is very unusual for a series of this scale and cost to have an upfront commitment of this size, but these were the terms of the deal with the Tolkien Estate and publishers HarperColllins. In addition, Amazon must have the first season in production within two years.

New Line Cinema, who produced Peter Jackson’s hugely successful Lord of the Rings movies, do do not own any of the TV rights to Tolkien’s work, so the show could technically stand apart from the films. However, New Line were included in the talks, and THR reveals that Jackson has already started “a dialogue” with Amazon, and that the studio “may use material from the films.” Another intriguing aspect of the deal is that it also includes the rights to make “a potential spinoff,” indicating that, if successful, we’ll be watching a lot of Tolkien on our screens for many years to come.

Jackson’s first Lord of the Rings trilogy collectively made more than $2.9 billion, with the final instalment, 2003’s The Return of the King, making more than $1 billion alone. It won 11 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Jackson followed this with three Hobbit films, which also made $2.9 billion worldwide.

In video game news, Middle-earth: Shadow of War launched in October for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Developer Monolith recently announced it will remove the game’s microtransactions.

By Joshua Yehl

Insomniac’s Spider-Man for PS4 will be hitting on September 7, and when it does, it will include numerous different suits that players can switch into. Naturally, our minds immediately started buzzing with all of the possibilities from the comics, so we’ve come up with a list of our dream picks for the coolest Spidey costumes we want to wear as we web-sling across New York City.

But before we get started, let’s lay out some criteria. As we saw in the first trailer at E3 2017, Miles Morales will be a character in the game, so we’re not including his red-and-black Spider-Man costume given that there’s a chance he’ll appear wearing it alongside Peter in the game. We’re also leaving out the likes of Venom and Carnage because they are distinct, separate characters from Peter who are also likely candidates to appear in the game, if the story decides to go the symbiote route.

Also, the folks over at Game Informer debuted the Spider-Man Noir suit, and the release date announcement trailer revealed the Spider-Punk suit (which is available as a pre-order bonus along with two mystery skins) and gave a blink-and-you-miss-it look at the original color scheme suit without the white spider, so those are already accounted for.

Everything else is fair game!

Check out our picks by clicking through the slideshow gallery below.

What other costumes do you want to see in the new Spider-Man game? Let us know in the comments.

Joshua is IGN’s Comics Editor. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.

Following the huge success of the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, Activision is launching another new remaster package soon. The company today announced Spyro: Reignited Trilogy, which features updated versions of the first three Spyro games: Spyro the Dragon (1998), Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage (1999) (known as Gateway to Glimmer in Europe and Australia), and Spyro: Year of the Dragon (2000).

These games were originally developed by Insomniac Games, but the Activision subsidiary Toys for Bob is handling the remasters. They are reportedly being made “from the ground up” for PS4 and Xbox One. Toys for Bob has a long history with the Spyro franchise, as the studio released the first Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure game and other installments in the toys-to-life series. The news comes after previous rumors and a very recent retailer leak.

All of the levels from the original three games are “mapped faithfully,” Activision says; you can see a screenshot comparison here. As for what’s new, Activision said there are “enhanced reward sequences,” better-looking environments, updated controls, new lighting effects, and “recreated” cinematics. Additionally, the characters have been “creatively re-imagined with additional flair.” The game will feature a “re-imagining” of Stewart Copeland’s original soundtracks.

Voice actor Tom Kenny, who originally voiced Spyro in Spyro 2 and Year of the Dragon, is coming back to voice the dragon yet again. Carlos Alazraqui voiced Spyro in the first game. It’s not immediately clear if Kenny is taking over in the remaster package. Kenny is perhaps best known for voicing SpongeBob Squarepants.

To celebrate this announcement, Activision tucked a cool Easter egg into the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy. Gamers in North America can now enter the famous video game code ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → Square at the Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped title screen to queue up the Reignited trailer (which you can see in the embed above).

Reignited arrives on September 21, priced at $40 in the United States.