Category: Games

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A little show called Game of Thrones is currently in the midst of its eighth and final season, and it is very popular. The ratings for Sunday’s Episode 4 have arrived–and they are massive.

17.2 million people watched “The Last of the Starks” across all platforms–including standard television and digital networks such as HBO Go and HBO Now, according to TV Line. Some portion of those people noticed the coffee cup, which has since been digitally erased (but not forgotten).

Episode 4’s 17.2 million viewers is down slightly from Episode 3’s 17.8 million viewers, which is the most-watched episode of the final season so far. Episode 2 has been the least-watched, with 15.9 million viewers. You can see a breakdown of viewers by episode below.

Episode 6, which is the finale of the entire Game of Thrones series, is likely to draw the biggest crowd, but whether or not it cracks 20 million remains to be seen.

So far, the four aired episodes have been together tallied more than 68 million views, and that doesn’t count all members of groups or families watching together and views from other means.

Check out our full Game of Thrones, Episode 4, “The Last of the Starks” review to see what we thought of it. You can also watch the preview trailer for Episode 5 and check out some fresh theories about where things will go from here. There are just two episodes left, but each one clocks in at 80 minutes, so there’s still plenty left.

Game of Thrones Season 8 Ratings:

via TV Line

• Episode 1 — 17.4 million
• Episode 2 — 15.9 million
• Episode 3 — 17.8 million
• Episode 4 — 17.2 million
• Episode 5 — Who knows.
• Episode 6 — Probably a lot; we’ll know soon.
• Total (so far) — 68.3 million.

The cancellation of Bayonetta developer PlatinumGames’ action-RPG Scalebound was one of the biggest news stories of 2017. Microsoft, the game’s publisher, took a lot of the heat about the cancellation. But Platinum boss Atsushi Inaba says Platinum is to blame as well.

“Both sides failed,” he told Video Game Chronicle. Inaba added that Scalebound the game “didn’t do all of the things that we needed to do as a developer.”

Inaba went on to say that it “wasn’t easy” to watch fans yell at Microsoft over Scalebound’s cancellation. “The reality is, when any game in development can’t get released it’s because both sides failed,” he said. “I think there are areas where we could’ve done better and I’m sure there are areas that Microsoft as a publishing partner wish that they could’ve done better. Because nobody wants a game to be cancelled.”

The studio head said Platinum learned “a lot of painful lessons” from Scalebound’s cancellation, and these lessons have helped the studio grow. Neither Microsoft nor Platinum have said why Scalebound was canceled, but Inaba acknowledged that the game might have been announced too early in development.

Bayonetta director Hideki Kamiya was leading development on Scalebound, which had reportedly been in development for years before it was shut down. In the wake of Scalebound’s cancellation, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said the cancellation is ultimately “better for Xbox gamers.”

There was a rumor that Scalebound might be revived as a Nintendo Switch game, but that’s not in the cards, according to Video Game Chronicle. J.P. Kellams, who was a producer on Scalebound, said he knows “exactly why” Scalebound was canceled but details haven’t emerged as of yet.

Platinum is currently working on multiple projects, one of which is a game idea that “has never been done before.” For whatever it’s worth, Platinum says 2019 is an “incredibly important” year for the studio.

Microsoft is expected to announce a next-generation Xbox at E3 next month, but ahead of that, the company today launched the brand-new all-digital Xbox One S. Called the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition, the system costs $250 / £200 / AU $350, and it’s available anywhere you buy consoles.

The new model is the same form factor and size, but it has no disc drive. It sports a 1 TB hard drive and it comes with three games: Forza Horizon 3, Minecraft, and Sea of Thieves.

The release of the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition is noteworthy because it’s the first major home console to offer a disc-free version. Microsoft announced the system in April, at which time it said “consumer appetite for digital content and experiences are stronger today than ever before.”

Indeed. Just today, Electronic Arts reported that a whopping 49 percent of all of its full-game sales on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One over the past 12 months were digital. The share of digital sales at other publishers is expected to be rising as well.

The new all-digital Xbox One S is not replacing the standard Xbox One S or the Xbox One X, both of which have disc drives. The new digital version is only an option for people who want it.

The lack of a disc drive means the console doesn’t support DVDs or Blu-ray discs, but Microsoft says people can still experience 4K content through Netflix, Amazon, and other destinations. The form factor is the same, and the all-digital Xbox One has the same functionality as the standard Xbox One S. It just cannot play game discs or disc-based media.

Looking ahead, Microsoft is expected to announce one or multiple next-generation Xbox consoles at E3 2019 in June.