Following the departure of BioWare’s former general manager Casey Hudson and Dragon Age executive producer Mark Darrah, EA leadership is reassuring investors that it is “very, very confident” in the studio’s future.
During the company’s Q3 earnings call today, CEO Andrew Wilson responded to a question from an investor about the recent departures by praising BioWare, while simultaneously acknowledging criticism over the studio’s output in recent years.
“I think that from the outside world there have been some blips in [BioWare’s] delivery over the last couple of years, but that has come as a result of them pushing deeply into innovation and creativity, and we feel very, very confident about their future roadmap,” he said. “And we’ve talked about games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect in their future.
“With respect to Casey and Mark leaving, both good friends of mine, and we have tremendous respect for both of them. But this happens in the natural course of creative organizations from time to time, and we feel very very good about the ongoing leadership of that studio.”
Hudson and Darrah departed the studio in December, leaving Samantha Ryan in charge of the studio as a whole, Christian Dailey in the role of Dragon Age executive producer, Matthew Goldman staying as creative director on the same project, and Mike Gamble remaining as the lead on Mass Effect: Legendary Edition.
EA is hoping that its planned acquisition of British racing game maker Codemasters will enable it to start releasing a new racing game every year, on par with its other EA Sports franchises.
In a slide deck accompanying the publisher’s Q3 financial results today, EA highlighted the motivations behind its pending acquisition, including the desire to increase its presence in racing, with EA CEO Andrew Wilson describing the sport as “one of the few truly global sports” during the company’s earnings call.
EA’s presentation further outlined Codemasters’ IP line-up, which includes owned IP Dirt, Dirt Rally, Grid, Project Cars, and upcoming mobile franchise Project Cars Go, as well as licensed IP F1 and upcoming licensed games for World Rally Championship beginning in 2023.
These would be added to EA’s owned racing franchises Need for Speed and Burnout Paradise, as well as Real Racing — which hasn’t had a new game launch since Real Racing 3 in 2013.
Later in the earnings call, COO Blake Jorgensen praised the viability of F1 racing in particular as a global franchise currently gaining further traction in the US, suggesting that EA hopes to become the go-to publisher for racing games more broadly, saying the genre is “one of the best growth opportunities there is.”
“On top of the fact that the Dirt Franchise, the Grid franchise, all of their franchises are incredible games, but none of them are actually taking advantage of a large publishing organization and the marketing muscle that we are able to deliver. And we think that has growth to it. Not to mention, the talent that can continue to help our Need for Speed business or our Real Racing business could be very powerful. So we know it is not a FIFA-sized business, but we know there is an incredible opportunity to own essentially all the driving business there is.”
Wilson added that EA also sees an opportunity with Codemasters’ titles to incorporate further live service elements, saying that “F1 plus live service plus our marketing muscle is a profound opportunity.”
This comes alongside a further statement from Wilson during the earnings call, stating EA’s intent to expand EA Sports into different types of sports, with more announcements planned “in the weeks and months ahead.” Wilson added that this includes “at least one new experience” launching next fiscal year — which begins April 2021.
EA announced its intent to acquire Codemasters earlier this month for an approximate price of $1.2 billion, which was initially in contest with a $1 billion offer from Take-Two Interactive before the latter retracted its offer. The acquisition is expected to complete in Q1 of 2021, or between April and June of this year, and is currently pending a shareholder vote from Codemasters.
Codemasters launched Dirt 5 in November of last year as a launch title for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Our review called it “a complete about-face” for the franchise, and an “unabashed, arcade-inspired racing experience.”
EA has spoken at length that a new Battlefield game will be released in 2021 with a reveal planned for Spring. Today during EA’s latest financial call, the company reaffirmed this timeline and says the next Battlefield game will take “full” advantage of next-gen platforms.
During the latest EA investor call, EA CEO Andrew Wilson confirmed the next Battlefield game will be released on holiday this year and a reveal is planned for Spring. During the Q&A portion, Wilson shared more details on the next Battlefield, short of a reveal.
When asked about the next Battlefield game, Wilson says it will utilize the “full power of next-gen platforms to ensure this is ‘exactly’ the game that Battlefield fans want to play.”
Wilson also says that the next Battlefield will be a return to “full-out military warfare” and will support more players than ever before. The hope is for the next Battlefield game to pave the way for the series into the future.
A lot is riding on the next Battlefield game. Battlefield 5 was the last game in the series that EA released, and that was back in 2018. Reception to Battlefield 5 failed to meet expectations, and regular content updates for Battlefield 5 ended in 2020.
Apex Legends is coming to Nintendo Switch on March 9, developer Respawn announced.
Director Chad Grenier wrote in a blog post that the Switch version of Apex Legends will launch with cross-platform functionality, season 8 content, and “full-feature parity” with other versions.
Worried you’re already behind during the current season? The good news is that Switch players who purchase the season 8 battle pass will receive 30 battle pass levels for free. Players will also earn double XP during the first two weeks after launch.
Porting Apex Legends to its smallest screen yet is a major achievement, and we couldn’t have done it without our friends at Panic Button,” Grenier said. “We’re very proud of what the team has been able to achieve with some smart optimizations for the Switch port to deliver a full-featured Apex Legends experience on the go.”
Apex Legends season 8 kicked off today, featuring the arrival of its 16th character, demolitions enthusiast Fuse, a new lever-action rifle, and the usual assortment of new cosmetics and battle pass items.
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Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/Crypto main for IGN.
To quote a line from Halo 2 in describing Mass Effect: Legendary Edition: “There are those who said this day would never come. What are they to say now?” Yes, we’re talking about the long-awaited remaster of BioWare’s beloved sci-fi RPG trilogy. We’ve seen it, and we want to tell you all about it. Plus: Xbox’s baseball-game curse is finally lifted – a year earlier than expected too! – and EA surprised everyone with the return of a college football game. Please welcome special guests Kat Bailey and Cam Hawkins this week!
Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, or grab an MP3 download of this week’s episode. For more awesome content, check out the latest episode of IGN Unfiltered, featuring an interview with Brian Raffel, the cofounder of Raven Software – the studio behind Star Wars Jedi Knight II Jedi Outcast, Soldier of Fortune, Heretic, Hexen, Star Trek Voyager Elite Force, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, X-Men Origins Wolverine, and this year’s Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, among many others:
It’s already been an incredibly fun year of Xbox coverage, and the best is yet to come. Join us! Oh, and feel free to leave us a video Loot Box question below using Yappa and you might be featured on an upcoming episode!
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.
God of War was already a great-looking game, but a new patch makes it run even smoother on PS5. We took the new update for a spin to see Old Man Kratos looking better than ever.
The free patch replaces the PS4 Pro’s performance vs fidelity setting with one default setting that combines both. Now you can play at 4K checkerboard resolution with 60 FPS. You also still have the option of playing in “Original Performance Experience,” which will run at 4K with 30 FPS.
And since God of War 2018 is one of the games included in the PS Plus Collection, you might already have access to give it a spin yourself. But first, watch us put it through its paces.
This news hammers home an important truth about Black Panther – the franchise has become much bigger than just T’Challa. Let’s take a closer look at why there’s still so much ground left to cover even if T’Challa’s story has come to a premature end.
Even when it seemed Boseman would remain an active part of the MCU post-Avengers: Endgame, many fans assumed it would be only a matter of time until T’Challa’s younger sister Shuri took up the Black Panther mantle. That’s what happened in the comics, specifically in the 2009 Black Panther series. When her brother is severely injured in an attack orchestrated by Doctor Doom, Shuri rises up to fill the void and lead Wakanda in her brother’s place.
Though Shuri’s tenure as Black Panther only lasted a few years, she’s still grown to become as much the face of the franchise as her brother. These days, Shuri has taken on a new, more spiritual role as the leader of the Dora Milaje and the living connection between the kingdom of Wakanda and the Djalia – the afterlife where the dead kings of old gather to mentor the current Black Panther. Whether or not Letitia Wright’s Shuri follows the same arc as the comic book version, it’s clear her story has only just begun in the MCU. There’s no reason Marvel Studios can’t continue to grow the franchise with Shuri as its new center.
Is this a glimpse of the MCU’s future?
Really, the only thing stopping Shuri from stepping into T’Challa’s ugly sandals is Wright’s recent history of social media scandals. We’ll see if that proves to be a deal-breaker for Disney. But fortunately, even Shuri is just the tip of the Wakandan iceberg.
The Dora Milaje as Heroes and Villains
2016’s Captain America: Civil War and 2018’s Black Panther introduced MCU fans to the Dora Milaje, the “Grace Jones-looking” bodyguards who protect the king and the land at all costs. Which raises a compelling question – if T’Challa is gone, where does that leave the women who devoted themselves to his safekeeping?
We already got a taste of this conflict in Avengers: Endgame, where we learned Danai Gurira’s Okoye effectively became the steward of Wakanda after T’Challa and Shuri were blipped away by Thanos. That’s five years of Wakanda existing without a true monarch. Who’s to say everyone wants things to go back to normal post-Endgame? With T’Challa (presumably) being killed off permanently this time, or otherwise taken off the table, will the throne automatically transfer to Shuri, or will a power struggle develop between Shuri and Okoye? And what of T’Challa’s *other* bodyguard force, the Hatut Zeraze? We have yet to even meet them in the MCU.
The Black Panther and the Dora Milaje have a complex relationship that the MCU has only barely begun to explore. As we saw from the romance between T’Challa and Lupita Nyong’o’s Nakia, not all of the Dora Milaje are willing or able to put their personal desires above their duties. In fact, the comics have established the Dora Milaje as ceremonial brides to T’Challa, basically a way of keeping the peace between the various Wakandan tribes. Nakia herself undergoes a very dark turn and becomes a villain known as Malice, all after T’Challa is tricked into kissing her and “consummating” what’s meant to be an entirely symbolic relationship. The MCU may not follow that exact path, but it’s easy to see the Dora Milaje as a whole and Nakia in particular facing a very difficult road ahead once they lose their king and husband.
The opening of the first Black Panther movie shows us the origins of the Wakandan kingdom, as we learn the nation is made up of five tribes. Four of those tribes have united around the Black Panther and enjoy the prosperity only a mountain full of vibranium could provide. Only the fifth, the Jabari Tribe, have chosen to live apart from the others and worship the White Gorilla rather than the Black Panther.
While these tribes may have been mostly divided before, it’s easy to imagine the loss of T’Challa sparking a new wave of civil unrest. How does a kingdom choose a new monarch when the old one isn’t around to participate in the usual rites? The question may become whether Wakandans still want to exist as a monarchy or evolve into a democracy instead. That question has been at the heart of writer Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Black Panther comic in recent years.
The silver lining to losing T’Challa in the MCU is that it opens the door for other leaders from other tribes taking on more prominent roles, either in the sequel movie or the TV series. As it is, Winston Duke’s M’Baku was one of the breakout characters in the first Black Panther movie. Who would complain about seeing more of him, or the other ambitious figureheads who see T’Challa’s fall as an opportunity? Will M’Baku renew his quest for the throne, or will he support someone like Shuri or Okoye?
Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger is widely regarded as one of the best villains in the MCU. His bloodthirsty actions are contrasted by his tragic background and clear set of motivations. Though it certainly seemed as though his story came to an end in the first Black Panther movie, that hasn’t stopped fans from speculating about Killmonger’s return in the sequel. Even Jordan himself seems amenable to the idea.
“Being in that world in a character that I loved playing, and working with [writer/director Ryan Coogler] and all that good stuff, it’s family. We created a family over there,” he told People Magazine in January 2021. “So to be able to be in that world again is something that, I think, will always be on the table in some capacity.”
It remains to be seen if Coogler will opt to bring back Killmonger for the sequel. There are certainly plenty of ways to explain that return, what with Wakanda’s advanced technology and close link to the spiritual plane. The comics even offer a novel solution, with the current volume of Black Panther introducing a new Killmonger who rules the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda 2000 years in the future.
Whether or not Killmonger returns has less to do with the how than whether there’s another good story to tell with the character. The first movie established him as a man who dreamed his entire life of living in Wakanda, only to grow into a hardened killer who nearly destroyed the thing he coveted most. What happens if he’s given a second lease on life and a chance to prove himself worthy of his ancestral home? If he is still alive, does that technically give him a better claim to the throne than Shuri? Will we see Killmonger recast as a reluctant hero this time? Anything’s possible, which may be the best argument for making the character one of the driving forces behind the franchise.
Wakanda is an Afrofuturist utopia – a kingdom where advanced science and widespread prosperity make it the world’s greatest and most mysterious superpower. But in the comics, Wakanda is one of several kingdoms ruled by superhuman monarchs. T’Challa is a man whose only true peers are other kings like Doctor Doom, Namor and Black Bolt. We’ve already met the latter character thanks to the critically reviled Marvel’s Inhumans TV show, but the hope for many fans is that both Doom and Namor will begin to take on major roles in the MCU over the next few years. And if that’s the case, there’s plenty of room for them to appear in Black Panther 2 and/or the Wakanda series.
Avengers: Endgame may have already set the stage for a Black Panther vs. Namor conflict. Okoye references strange seismic activity off the coast of Africa, a seemingly random non-sequitur that may well have been foreshadowing the return of Atlantis. And given both his enduring popularity and the fact that a new Fantastic Four project is in the works, it goes without saying Doom will be making his grand MCU debut at some point.
It’s a shame we’ll never get to see these characters interact with Boseman’s T’Challa. But even so, there’s no shortage of gold to be mined from pitting characters like Shuri and Okoye against arrogant kings like Namor and Doom. The MCU could be well on the way to a superhero-flavored Game of Thrones scenario. Who wouldn’t tune into that series?
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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
The Super Bowl has historically been a big moment for movie studios, where the biggest movies get 30 seconds of air time in front of the eyes of the entire nation. This year, though, studios are scaling back Super Bowl movie trailers by quite a bit.
News comes via Variety and Deadline, both of which report that the Super Bowl ad lineup will have much less in the way of movie trailers this year compared to previous years. That doesn’t mean there won’t be any trailers, though. Amazon Prime Video is expected to show off Eddie Murphy’s Coming 2 America. According to Deadline, Disney will have two to four trailers, and Universal plans to show M. Night Shyamalan’s upcoming thriller Old.
That’s a big drop from last year’s list. The 2020 Super Bowl was host to a bunch of blockbuster trailers, including Fast and Furious film F9, Marvel’s Black Widow, Mulan, James Bond’s No Time To Die, A Quiet Place II, Sonic the Hedgehog, Top Gun: Maverick. and others. Within weeks of the big game, though, much of the country went into various stages of lockdown. Of those films, only Sonic the Hedgehog made it into American theaters, and Mulan went straight to Disney+ to pilot its premium-viewing model.
The rest of those movies (and many more) have seen at least one delay, and some three or more. F9 was set to come out on May 28, 2020, but is now scheduled for May 22, 2021. Vaccines are rolling out, but distribution takes time, and it’s well within the realm of possibility that F9 might see yet another delay before release to reflect how ready people are to get back into theaters. In other words, studios aren’t yet ready to commit to release dates they might not be able to keep.
Even ahead of the Super Bowl, we’re already seeing fewer trailers on television. Variety notes that, when comparing the December 28 to January 3 period last year to this year, the number of 30-second TV ads from studios on top networks decreased by 82% in 2020-2021.
Interestingly, though, it seems like streamers are mostly sitting out, too. Netflix doesn’t appear to have a repeat of its 2018 Cloverfield Paradox micdrop moment planned; Apple TV, Peacock, and Hulu are skipping Super Bowl LV as well. Deadline reports that HBO Max is sitting out, though Variety says the company will take some time to advertise all those formerly theater-only movies coming to Considering the way companies like Disney and WarnerMedia have shifted strategies to emphasize streaming, this seems like the year they’d want to make a big splash, but that’s reportedly not the case.
When Kansas City Chiefs go head to head with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this Sunday, though, there will still be plenty of ads, and we’ll be covering all the standouts.
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WandaVision on Disney+ is sparking some interesting conspiracy theories all around the internet.
With Episode 4 in the books and Episode 5 right around the corner, we’ve officially hit mid-season in WandaVision, the first ever MCU TV show–and, surprising no one, the show’s core mysteries are only getting more and more complex as more information is revealed.
While fans of the MCU are no stranger to wild speculation and conspiracy theory building, WandaVision has presented us with an unusual challenge. Not only are we getting new clues doled out on a week-to-week basis, leaving plenty of room for red herrings and false starts, we’re also trying to piece together the very first official entry into Phase 4, meaning we’ve got to try and figure out where the pieces we’re putting down might fit in a mostly obscured bigger picture. After all, with all the status quo changes in Avengers: Endgame, it really does feel like anything is possible for Marvel movies going forward.
Of course this is exciting, but it’s also a bit overwhelming–especially if you’re trying your best to figure it out as you go along, rather than waiting for all nine episodes to be available for bingeing. We get it–we’re in the same boat. And that’s exactly why we’ve compiled a list of our favorite working theories for the show, ranging from absolutely bonkers off-the-wall improbabilities to involvement from the actual, literal devil.
It takes all kinds here in Westview.
Let us know your favorite WandaVision theories, no matter how bizarre, in the comments below.
As part of Electronic Arts’ earnings report, the company shared some details on the next Battlefield game. Management said the game will offer “all-out military warfare” and support more players than ever before for the Battlefield series.
The current player cap for Battlefield is 32 v 32, so presumably this new Battlefield game will offer something more. EA also said the new Battlefield game will offer more player agency, but the company did not elaborate on what that means.
What’s more, this new game is tracking ahead of EA’s own internal milestones. EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said the new game is scheduled to reach “feature complete” status faster than any other Battlefield game in franchise history.
This new game, whatever is ends up being called, is scheduled to be revealed in Spring 2021 before releasing in Holiday 2021. EA CEO Andrew Wilson said this new Battlefield game will take advantage of the “full power” of the PS5 and Xbox Series X as it attempts to usher in a new era for the Battlefield series.
Here are EA’s full comments on the new Battlefield game:
“We’re looking forward to sharing a lot more about our FY22 plan in the months ahead, including our next Battlefield experience, which will mark a return to all-out military warfare. The game takes full advantage of the power of next-generation platforms to bring massive and immersive battles to life with more players than ever before. Featuring maps with unprecedented scale, the next vision of Battlefield takes all the destruction, player agency, and vehicle and weapon combat that the franchise is known for and elevates it to another level. The team is focused, and the game is ahead of our internal milestones. We will reveal the game in the spring and deliver the defining Battlefield experience for our players in the 2021 holiday season.”
