Update: 1/20/21: Shortly following the inauguration of Joseph Biden as the United States’ new president, Twitch announced it has indefinitely maintained its suspension of former President Donald Trump’s Twitch channel “due to the ongoing risk of further incitement of violence.”
The decision to indefinitely suspend the account comes as the company endeavors “to remove the potential for harm to our community and the general public,” following the company’s previous move to disable the channel earlier this month on January 7. Twitch’s full statement reads:
“We have indefinitely suspended President Trump’s Twitch channel due to the ongoing risk of further incitement of violence. The President’s statements continue to be interpreted as calls to action, and we are taking this action to remove the potential for harm to our community and the general public.
Twitch has clear rules that prohibit hateful conduct, harassment, or incitement of violence on our service, and we consider off-service events when making enforcement decisions. However, the events of the past weeks have highlighted a gap with respect to rhetoric that encourages violence, regardless of whether or not it was directly streamed on Twitch. We will be updating our policies as a result of our consideration of this situation.”
Original story follows:
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Livestreaming platform Twitch has announced it has disabled the channel for President Donald Trump on Thursday.
In a statement to IGN from a Twitch spokesperson, “In light of yesterday’s shocking attack on the Capitol, we have disabled President Trump’s Twitch channel.”
The company added, “Given the current extraordinary circumstances and the President’s incendiary rhetoric, we believe this is a necessary step to protect our community and prevent Twitch from being used to incite further violence.”
Yesterday, both chambers of U.S. Congress met to certify the results of the 2020 U.S. Presidential elections which determined Joe Biden as the winner. Donald Trump, who for weeks espoused conspiracy theories that the election has been stolen, addressed a nearby crowd who then marched to the Capitol and briefly clashed with police and occupied the Capitol buildings.
US legislators from both parties were forced to either flee or barricade themselves for safety.
Following these events, digital companies have taken measures to limit Trump’s presence to prevent further violence. Facebook has announced it will indefinitely ban Trump from Facebook and Instagram, and Twitter has initiated a temporary ban.
Trump’s official Twitch channel was once suspended previously in 2020 after it rebroadcasted several rallies which Twitch says violated its Hateful Conduct guidelines.
Twitch has also recently removed the popular ‘PogChamp’ emote based on fighting game player Ryan ‘Gootecks’ Gutierrez following comments he made in the aftermath of the Capitol Hill insurgency which Twitch says called for further violence.
It’s unclear how long Trump’s Twitch account will remain disabled, but Twitch says it is focused on minimizing harm during the transition period, which is the next two weeks until Joe Biden is inaugurated as President.
A demo build for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has turned up alongside an old N64 demo cartridge which housed Nintendo racer F-Zero X. Though the demo was partially saved over, some of it was intact enough to reveal new details about the Nintendo classic.
Details about the demo and its existence were shared by Forest of Illusion, a site dedicated to preserving Nintendo’s history. There were several surprises found in the demo data, including several magical spell medallions that were supposed to grant Link different abilities to help with his journey.
Here’s the F-Zero X development cartridge which contains the Spaceworld 97 Zelda 64 data in the overdump. There doesn’t appear to be much code or music, just graphics and maps. Zelda 64 data begins at 0x1000000 in hex.https://t.co/DsFpv5uVaupic.twitter.com/JUyOjGRP5w
One of these medallions, the Soul Medallion, allowed Link to turn into Navi and fly around as the fairy. Others would have allowed our hero to shoot fire arrow-like projectiles, cloak himself in darkness to escape enemies, and to both create and extinguish fire.
Other changes found in the demo were a more simplified version of Kakariko Village, a different Hyrulian world map, Link’s Pegasus Boots making their return, and the ability to ride Epona in an early version of the archery test.
Fans have also been translating text found in the game and have implied that Ocarina of Time may have had a pretty different plot than what we got. For instance, the Deku Tree was originally going to be a prison for Navi and other fairies that Link was going to break them out of.
For more details on what can be found within the demo data, check out this thread. But be warned, fans who have checked out these files have stated that the ROM is only partially complete, since it was saved over with the F-Zero files. The demo was likely never supposed to be viewed by the public, so historians are lucky to have what details they were able to salvage.
Twitch has indefinitely banned Donald Trump. Previously, the streaming platform temporarily suspended Trump’s Twitch account after the Capitol attacks. Now, with the ban, Trump cannot make another account nor appeal Twitch’s decision.
In a statement to The Verge, a Twitch spokesperson stated, “We have indefinitely suspended President Trump’s Twitch channel due to the ongoing risk of further incitement of violence.”
“The President’s statements continue to be interpreted as calls to action, and we are taking this action to remove the potential for harm to our community and the general public. Twitch has clear rules that prohibit hateful conduct, harassment, or incitement of violence on our service, and we consider off-service events when making enforcement decisions. However, the events of the past weeks have highlighted a gap with respect to rhetoric that encourages violence, regardless of whether or not it was directly streamed on Twitch. We will be updating our policies as a result of our consideration of this situation,” the spokesperson continued.
Twitch previously banned Trump in June 2019 for two weeks, citing “hateful conduct.” Multiple social media platforms have effectively banned Trump after the riot he incited on January 6. Twitter permanently banned Trump and said it was doing so in order to prevent the “risk of further incitement of violence.”
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It’s been tough trying to snag a PS5 or Xbox Series X in 2021, but GameStop has announced customers will have another chance this Thursday, January 21. The video game retailer plans to restock PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch bundles, though a limited number of units is expected, so you’ll want to be quick if you want a new console.
Unfortunately, it’s unclear exactly when the PS5 or Xbox Series X|S will be restocked. GameStop’s Twitter account will post when they’re live, but you can always keep an eye on our PS5 restock and Xbox Series X availability guides for updates. No bundles are currently available for the PS5 and Xbox Series X, but they will likely appear at the links below tomorrow. People can expect a variety of extra accessories and games thrown into the bundles, which will make them more expensive than the standard consoles.
The difficulty in buying one of the new consoles has been tough, especially with PS5 scalpers snatching the units before anyone else. The latest shipment was at Target, which had the PS5 in stock this morning. Of course, those units didn’t last long either. Both versions of Sony’s new console were available for a few moments on the retailer’s website, though only in-store pickup was available. It’s worth checking your local Target–and other stores–for PS5 and Xbox Series X units just in case.
As for the Nintendo Switch, it hasn’t nearly been as hard to find in stores. However, with the current pandemic, game console sales have gone up, causing shortages and delivery delays even for Nintendo’s three-year-old platform. If you’re looking for a Switch of your own, see our full guide on where to buy a Switch in 2021, including its special editions.
Hulu has announced that starting on January 25, fans of Paul Feig’s coming-of-age high school drama Freaks and Geeks will be able to stream the show on the platform. The streaming service also confirmed that its original soundtrack will remain intact.
The show was previously available on other networks and platforms, like FXX and Netflix. However, due licensing disputes, these brief revivals of Freaks and Geeks contained altered scenes where music cues were changed and an almost entirely different score. This wasn’t the case for those who own Freaks and Geeks on DVD, which retains its iconic soundtrack. This is a big deal, as the show’s music is performed by artists like Billy Joel, Grateful Dead, The Who, and Van Halen, all musicians who really help set the tone for Freaks and Geeks’ setting.
According to The A.V. Club, Hulu confirmed that with bringing this iconic drama back to television, the streaming platform was able to secure the show’s original soundtrack.
Show creator Paul Feig, in a statement to The A.V. Club, said he’s “so thrilled” that not only is Hulu bringing the show back, but that it was able to revive it with the original music to boot.
“I’m so thrilled that Hulu is bringing Freaks And Geeks back to the [airwaves] with the original music.” Feig told the publication, “For me, the thought of our show without all the original music intact is like running the series with several of the characters cut out. The music is as big a part of this show as the writing and the performances. This is the only way to see our show and I can’t thank Hulu enough for putting us back on the air.”
Created by Feig and executive produced by Judd Apatow, Freaks and Geeks is a coming-of-age drama about a group of students navigating high school in the early ’80s. Though it only ran for one season from 1999-2000, the show featured a star-studded cast and kickstarted the careers of many household Hollywood names, including Becky Ann Baker, James Franco, Jason Segel, Linda Cardellini, and Seth Rogan. Additionally, other now-prominent stars made guest appearances on Freaks and Geeks, like Ben Stiller, Rashida Jones, and Shia LaBeouf.
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Crunchyroll has been a prominent name in the anime industry for years now. The company has been the go-to for anime streaming for a while, but it has expanded into other ventures in recent years, with one of the most interesting being video game publishing.
In 2016, Crunchyroll Games began publishing games based on anime or original titles featuring anime-like art styles–the most recent of which, Princess Connect! Re:Dive, released in the US on January 19 after a successful launch in Asia back in 2018. The publisher has worked on games about other established properties, like Mob Psycho 100, as well as original IP, like Grand Alliance, all in the hopes of promoting types of games that traditionally haven’t done as well in the west. Though there are exceptions, like last year’s Genshin Impact, plenty of anime or anime-looking games just don’t make a splash in American or European markets.
“I think [game publishing] goes in hand with our philosophy, which is our long-term vision to be a more significant kind of piece of that anime ecosystem, of that puzzle,” Crunchyroll general manager of games & head of 360 Terry Li told me. “We already are on the video side, but I think on the game side, there’s certainly an aspiration that we want to get more involved in game development, game publishing. Not for the sake of just doing that, but because we do believe that today there’s an abundance of games that get made in Asia around this anime ecosystem that don’t fully consider a global audience.”
Li mentions that developers tend to design for their immediate audience. Which, of course, makes sense. An American developer is likely designing its game with an American audience in mind, so it stands to reason, as Li argues, that the same is true for Asian developers. A Chinese developer likely most cares about appealing to the immediate Chinese audience, for instance, and a Japanese developer likely feels the same way for Japanese audiences. And because of this design philosophy, certain games don’t translate as well when they’re ported overseas.
“And that’s why you statistically see so many games that get ported over, they only do anywhere between 15 to 20% of what they did back home, even within the case where it’s a global audience,” Li said. “And part of that is because they don’t put as much effort into marketing it and part of that is that they designed the core loop and the narrative to fit within the initial audience. And they haven’t really thought, ‘Well, do Western audiences play games like this?'”
That’s where Crunchyroll Games wants to come in. Crunchyroll has been in the anime space–an industry that, like gaming, straddles both the western and eastern hemispheres–and thus it has a great deal of experience in how to market the same piece of media to two very different audiences. As it stands, anime and gaming audiences have a lot of overlap, so Crunchyroll being able to reach the former means it can market to the latter as well. For now, that means helping games from Chinese and Japanese developers better translate their systems for Western audiences, though Crunchyroll Games wants to do more in the years to come.
“Starting this year with Princess Connect and going forward, we do have a lot more involvement, if only at least around ensuring that the overall narrative within the game and the anime makes sense,” Li said. “We are hoping to leverage our kind of expertise in anime to provide more data points and share more feedback to our partners in Japan, helping them navigate where the storylines [between the anime and the game] should diverge or should evolve or should pivot entirely.”
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Beyond that, Crunchyroll Games wants to take a more active role in the development process for anime games and indie games with anime-inspired art styles, assisting studios with ensuring their titles appeal to a global audience, regardless of whether those players watch anime. According to Li, the point is to get “games that were relatively unknown, or at least underserved in the Western market” into the hands of players that may like these types of games, they just don’t yet know they exist. “Practically speaking, the reason we focused on free-to-play so far in mobile is, we’re really trying to create a more this feeling of accessibility,” Li said. “We want to be able to get our games into as many people’s hands as possible. And so we made the conscious decision that putting up a paywall or a game that you have to purchase will severely limit the audience.”
Li adds that as Crunchyroll Games grows, it hopes to impact genres beyond free-to-play mobile titles. Working with the studios that develop console and PC anime games or titles that feature anime-inspired art is the next step. “As the situation evolves, we will certainly start looking at games that can do cross-platform or support cross-play,” Li said. Because that’s becoming more and more common nowadays.”
For now, though, Crunchyroll Games is sticking to mobile games and already has a few more titles in the pipe. Li wasn’t able to share what those were with me, but I did ask if any might have come about based on the announcement of the recent acquisition of Crunchyroll by Funimation, a company that’s in turn owned by Sony, which of course owns the PlayStation platform. “Good question,” Li said. “To be honest, we just haven’t had this discussion. The deal is still in the works and so as of right now, we’re operating under ‘business as usual.’ But if that situation does come, if the deal actually closes, then I’m sure we will talk about it. But nothing yet.”
For now, if you’re looking to download a Crunchyroll Games title, you do have a few options. As previously mentioned, Princess Connect! Re:Dive is the most recent release–it also got an anime in 2020, one of our favorites for the year, which is getting a second season in 2021. However, there’s also Mass of the Dead, Grand Alliance, Naruto X Boruto Ninja Tribes, Mob Psycho 100: Psychic Battle, RWBY: Crystal Match, and Grand Summoners. All seven games are available for both Android and iOS devices.
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Six asteroids will pass by Earth on January 20, which just so happens to be Inauguration Day in the US (via ZME Science). Fortunately, or unfortunately–depending on if you have a nihilistic wish for 2021 to just be over already–the asteroids will not collide with our planet.
According to ZME science, the closest one will pass Earth by roughly the same distance that the moon is located at. You can view all of the asteroids’ data over at NASAs Center For Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).
If you’re curious about past asteroids that made it close enough to the Earth for NASA to take note, you can also view that info in the above link. CNEOS is an organization that “computes high precision orbits for Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), predicts their future motions, and assesses their impact hazard.”
While zombie outbreaks and cyberpunk fantasies about corporate greed destroying humanity are currently the popular cultural visions of apocalypse, asteroids hitting the earth is another option. The Green Slime, Deep Impact, and Armageddon are all movies with asteroids posing an real existential threat to humanity. (The Green Slime is one of those good, bad movies–you shouldn’t watch it for the plot, but its sheer marvelous lack of plot.)
In actual history, an asteroid impact most likely was one of the causes behind a large extinction event on Earth. The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event occurred over 66 million years ago wiped out a large swath of plant and animal species, effectively ended the dinosaur era, and launched us into the current Cenozoic era, also known as the age of mammals.
If you’re curious what a CNEOS response to a threatening asteroid would look like, check out its Hypothetical Impact Scenarios page. Note: the documents are thought exercises around a hypothetical event and aren’t tied to real-world events.
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Cyberpunk 2077 had one of the most commercially successful launches of all-time for an RPG back in December, but the game’s last-gen edition was marred with issues that prompted class-action lawsuits. Valve founder Gabe Newell has now shared his thoughts on the situation, telling New Zealand’s TVNZ that he has a lot of sympathy for the developers at CD Projekt Red, adding that he believes the Polish studio will do what it can to make things right as time goes on.
“I have a lot of sympathy with a situation that every game developer finds themselves in,” he said. “All I know is that there are a lot of very happy gamers in the PC space, which are the ones that are most visible to us.”
Newell said there are parts of Cyberpunk 2077 that are “just brilliant,” and this demonstrates that the developers put in a “tremendous amount of work” to get the game out the door.
“It’s unfair to throw stones at any other developer, because just getting something as complex and ambitious as that out the door is pretty amazing,” he said.
Newell also reacted to Sony’s decision to pull Cyberpunk 2077 from its digital store on PS4 and offer refunds. He said he had no inside knowledge of the situation, but he remarked that it was an “unusual” approach for Sony to do that.
Reflecting on controversy surrounding games in general, Newell said a strong reaction demonstrates that people care and it provides an opportunity for a developer to turn a negative into a positive.
“People get mad because they care,” Newell said. “When people have those kinds of reactions, my first thought is that this is an opportunity for us, and I assume that the Cyberpunk 2077 developers are similarly just using it to crank through an make improvements that are going to be beneficial to their customers. They have a long history of doing a great job, of continuing to invest in their products over time and I suspect that they’re going to be very good at making their customers happy over time.”
In the world of games, expectations are high–and this can lead to fiery responses when things don’t go to plan, Newell said.
“Everybody knows that if you’re in this business, expectations are high, and if you do it well people are going to let you know and if you failed to meet those expectations they’re are going to let you know–that’s part of why it’s a fun industry,” Newell said.
After starring in the box office smashes Rogue One and Venom, actor Riz Ahmed had a choice to make: continue to pursue big commercial projects and make a lot of money or try something else. He chose the latter and went on to star in Sound of Metal, and now he’s explained some of his thinking and why it was ultimately the right decision for him and his career.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Ahmed said he had a strong gut feeling about Sound of Metal, in which he plays a drummer who begins to lose his hearing.
“‘Why are you doing this when you could go off and get paid, finally?'” Ahmed recalled about his thought process. “There was an opportunity to do bigger, more commercial projects and make money and buy a home and all these things. But I thought, ‘Here’s your chance.’ My gut feeling about it was so strong. And for whatever reason, I felt really hungry for something like that, to go all in and just fucking go there.”
It worked out for Ahmed in the end, as he was praised for his performance in the film and it led to further opportunities down the track. Ahmed has already finished filming Amazon’s sci-fi movie Invasion with Octavia Spencer, and Amazon believes in the actor so much that it signed a deal with Ahmed’s production company, Left Handed Films.
In addition to that project, Ahmed is working with Barack and Michelle Obama on the Netflix movie Exit West from Avengers directors Joe and Anthony Russo’s ABGO banner.
Also in the interview, Ahmed confirmed he won’t return for the Venom sequel because, as should be obvious to anyone who saw the film, his character is very much dead. “I think I’m done in Venom,” he said. “It’s pretty conclusive. Dude got blown up in a spaceship.”
There is a rumored Rogue One prequel, too, but Ahmed can’t or won’t say anything about that. “I just haven’t heard of that, to be honest,” he said.
The official launch trailer for Apex Legends Season 8: Mayhem is set to go live tomorrow morning, January 21 at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET, the Apex Legends Twitter account announced.
The trailer will introduce the brand-new legend Walter “Fuse” Fitzroy, a guy who loves bombs. According to the trailer’s description on YouTube, which fans can set a reminder for once it goes live, “not everyone back on Salvo is happy” about Fuse joining the Apex Games. We’ll also have the trailer embedded here once it’s live, so check back tomorrow morning.
Apex Legends Season 8: Mayhem kicks off on February 2, and Fuse isn’t the only new addition to the popular battle royale. Alongside the forthcoming playable hero, Apex Legends players can expect a new weapon and several map changes, which have yet to be announced. These details will likely get mentioned during the Season 8: Mayhem launch trailer tomorrow morning.
In other Apex Legends news, recent leaks suggests that the game may be coming to Nintendo Switch within the next two weeks. Additionally, a new patch sought to address the myriad stability issues players were encountering, many of which resulted in freezes and/or crashes.
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