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After last week’s Discovery and WarnerMedia news, one of the biggest questions is what happens next for everyone else? 

The answer came quickly: Amazon bought MGM in a deal valued at $8.45 billion. Amazon’s intentions are to try and turn some of MGM’s most recognizable brands (Robocop, Rocky, etc) into better performing franchises. (How that affects James Bond is….complicated.) While critics, including some politicians, point to the acquisition as an example of Amazon having too much power — even if this merger doesn’t fall outside of antitrust practices — it’s a part of where entertainment is headed next. Consolidation comes for nearly everyone at some point. 

Think of it like CEOs strapping an Infinity Gauntlet to their arm, trying to collect all the Infinity Stones so they can control the outcome of the future.

Understanding philosophies behind these massive mergers and acquisitions also helps us understand what the future of entertainment looks like. Netflix is looking to expand into video games, an industry that co-CEO Reed Hastings referred to as “a great and interesting area” back in June 2020. Now, the company is looking for an executive to oversee development in that area. Whether that means acquiring a studio or hiring an in-house team is unknown, but Netflix wants to build out its audience base, tackling one of its biggest competitors — Fortnite. 

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The big question is what does this mean for the future of entertainment? Is it more Discovery-WarnerMedia type mergers, or is it massive companies expanding into new markets to reach their audiences across multiple platforms? There are three different types of deals we’re likely to see, not all equal in strength: 

1. Complementary deals that rely on franchise strength to create an undeniable product 

2. “Free” bundling that strengthens a core product 

3. Totally new ventures outside a core business that drives a bigger ecosystem for customers to live in

King Shark Can Now Host Shark Week 

The most likely mergers and acquisitions we’ll see over the next little bit are going to arrive as a direct result of what’s happened over the last few weeks.

WarnerMedia is with Discovery. Amazon has MGM. Univision merged with Mexico’s Televiva in a deal valued at $4.8 billion. All will give their streaming services and entertainment businesses a more appealing catalogue of content and potential franchises that can help scale — and that’s the word of the last few years. Companies want to grow; now, they need to scale (hitting wild numbers), as fast as possible. For example, HBO Max is a general-premium streaming service that wants to be in 200 million homes, and Discovery caters to more “niche” interests. Combining those two helps create a necessary product, not just an optional one.

Reality is hard to face sometimes. The majority of mergers fail, according to the Harvard Business Review. Roughly 70 to 80% of all mergers end up falling apart. (This reminds me slightly of a Grey’s Anatomy episode where George is optimistic about being on the code team until he learns that more than 90% of code patients die.) AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV failed spectacularly. AOL and Time Warner failed. Vivendi’s complicated acquisition of Universal was an absolute disaster. News Corp., the company behind Fox News, bought MySpace in 2005 and, well, we know what happened with MySpace. 

But, again, not all deals are equal, and where some fail, others succeed. Take Amazon possibly buying MGM. The bigger that acquisition is, the more obvious the high-growth potential (the $$ reason it’s being bought) needs to be. When AT&T agreed to spend more than $85 billion on WarnerMedia, it needed to prove that owning an entertainment conglomerate would help its core product or stand on its own as a lucrative business. The issue with AT&T, a phone company first and foremost, buying WarnerMedia at a time when Hollywood was going through a revolutionary moment, was that WarnerMedia didn’t fit into a high-growth potential category. 

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At least, not for many years. Think of it like this: AT&T executives’ entire philosophy was that WarnerMedia could help grow its broadband and mobile businesses through vertical integration. Basically, owning WarnerMedia and lining that up with a massive phone business would keep people on AT&T, or help bring new customers over. Core to that plan was launching a streaming service — HBO Max. 

Except that streaming services take billions of dollars of investment, and even the biggest winners take years to reach real profitability. Executives were already staring down the barrel of massive debt load, jumping to more than $170 billion in debt with one purchase. WarnerMedia, even with its arsenal of strong franchises and a premium network like HBO, wasn’t Disney. It wasn’t a necessity for families, and at $15 a month, it was the most expensive of any streaming services. Plus, cable is a dwindling business and WarnerMedia was left trying to figure out how to cater to 90 million customers who were at risk of cutting the cord.

Successful mergers and acquisitions bring in complementary assets that will help drive considerable growth; Discovery and WarnerMedia make sense, AT&T and WarnerMedia don’t.

Verizon and T-Mobile Want to Give You Shit for “Free”

What we’re likely to see much more of is distributors like Verizon and T-Mobile working with content groups like Disney or The Athletic to offer “free” subscriptions as part of mobile, internet, and cable packages. 

Like amenities that credit card companies offer, this makes sense for telecoms. They don’t want to buy and run Disney, nor are they trying to get into the digital media business with companies like The Athletic or the New York Times. What they do want to do, however, is use those streaming services to drive their broadband and mobile usage. It’s complementary, like a merger, but there’s little financial risk from the telecoms. 

Unlike major players in the main entertainment space, distributors like Verizon and T-Mobile can also take advantage of complementary services across a wide spectrum of interests. Music, news, entertainment, media, and more become a benefit to telecom giants who want their customers to stay and use more of the broadband or wireless access they’re paying for. 

Alex Sherman, a reporter at CNBC, has an excellent breakdown on this: 

As Sherman points out, this seems like the most logical step forward. Telecom giants get the best advantages of partnering with a highly sought out media partner without the financial risk. Use Verizon as a case study. The company bought a bunch of digital media properties (Huffington Post, Tumblr) and even launched its own streaming service of sorts — Verizon Go90. All of those failed to generate meaningful revenue for Verizon, and Go90 is now a meme in certain circles. 

These deals make sense for everyone involved. The content companies get additional sign ups (crucial for keeping Wall Street happy), and the distributors see an increase in usage and potentially new happy clients on the 5G side. It doesn’t cost $100 billion, and if the partnership doesn’t work out, there’s an expiration date in sight. 

Netflix Makes Games Now 

Just as I was sitting down to write this column, a report suggested that Netflix was trying to get into gaming. 

This is the third type of move we’ll see — and arguably the most important. Companies that really want to lean into the audience-first, multi-platform strategy. Netflix’s co-CEO Reed Hastings has long said that its biggest competitors are Fortnite and YouTube. In turn, Netflix is now looking to create a mini, more controlled YouTube Lite app (N Plus) and is reaching out to potential gaming industry veterans who can oversee a push into gaming. 

Another example of this is Apple and Amazon. Apple TV+, Apple Fitness+, Apple Music, Apple News+, and Apple Arcade are meant to reach audiences wherever their interests lie. Apple wants to meet them on their TV set, on their phone, in their stereo, or on their tablet, and give them everything they need all within one company. The company even created a bundle — Apple One — to make it slightly cheaper, accessible, and more appealing. Amazon has Prime Video, Twitch, Prime Music, and others to effectively do the same thing. 

Apple and Amazon want your monthly payment — and your attention — so it’s not going elsewhere. 

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This strategy is largely referred to as ecosystem driving. If a customer is in the ecosystem, it’s much harder to leave it. Apple created Apple One not only in an effort to drive its services business, one that chief financial officer Luca Maestri spoke to as being key to the company’s future back in 2017, but also to ensure that when iPhone or iPad customers go to update, they stay using Apple products. Amazon is all about Prime; even Amazon Film Studios head, Jen Salke, has publicly spoken about initiatives within their own program to drive Prime subscriptions. 

If done right, every part of the ecosystem will eventually drive enough revenue to create substantial profit for the company. Apple TV+ would drive subscriptions that pay for the films and TV shows being made, for example. Amazon Prime Video would drive a good amount of Prime Video subscriptions — something we don’t know if it currently does because Amazon doesn’t release breakdowns of its subscriptions. 

Until that starts to happen (Apple TV+’s lineup of shows and films is getting better all the time), if the ecosystem just prevents people from switching over to a competitor, Apple and Amazon can start to build a stable foundation for recurring revenue. For this to work, however, it takes companies with sizable revenue, meaning they can take the initial cost hit that comes with acquiring, launching, and maintaining a new product. 

Another great example is Facebook. Whether it’s Facebook Gaming or Facebook Watch, a big part of Facebook’s strategy is trying to keep you engaged on the site. The more engagement the company has, the more attractive it looks to advertisers, which means the more revenue it brings in. Facebook wants to steal attention (and advertisements) away from competitors like Twitch and YouTube, owned by Amazon and Google respectively, who alongside Facebook control nearly all advertising on the internet. 

Ecosystems can be lucrative. Amazon’s various entities seem to work for driving and keeping Prime subscribers. But ecosystems require big spending. If it works, the result can be extremely rewarding. If it fails, the consequences can be devastating. 

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Why Does This Matter?

Mergers and acquisitions are fun “what if?” games to play. They don’t always come to fruition (more often than not, they don’t), but it’s amusing to think about what the next wave of entertainment and media can look like. 

If you’re a comic book fan, the idea of Disney owning both Marvel and DC is a fun thought; if you’re a Nickelodeon fan who likes to watch a lot of shows on Netflix, the concept of ViacomCBS merging with Netflix is pretty cool. If you’re a Bond fan and want to watch a lot of it on Amazon Prime Video, well, you’re likely in luck. 

These moves have a direct impact on how and where we watch what we do. That’s the simple gist of it. Understanding who controls that, and why they’d want to control it, is vital.  

The Memorial Day sales have arrived. That means, if you’re in the market for a new 4K TV to set on your entertainment stand (or in your bedroom or wherever), now’s a good time to buy. That’s because retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart have dropped prices on TVs for the holiday weekend.

So whether you’re looking for a smaller set or a giant 77-inch display to hang on the wall, you can find a good deal right now. Let’s take a look at the best 4K TV deals in all the Memorial Day sales.

4K TV Deals at Best Buy

Best Buy is running one of the best Memorial Day 2021 sales for anyone on the lookout for a TV. In particular, you can snag a great deal on LG OLED TVs. If you plan to use the TV for gaming or movie watching, I can’t recommend the LG CX TVs highly enough. They’re fully equipped to handle all the most futuristic features of the PS5 and Xbox Series X. They also offer true black, fantastic color, and an ultra-crisp image. You can’t go wrong.

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4K TV Deals at Amazon

Aside from Best Buy, the 4K TV deals are pretty scattershot. Amazon and Walmart have some random discounts, but nothing too eye-grabbing. That said, here’s what we’ve found.

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4K TV Deals at Walmart

Walmart only has a couple of TV deals, but the main one is the 24-inch JVC TV on sale for $69. That’s a tough price to beat on an HD TV, so if that size and class works for you, grab it while the deal is live.

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Memorial Day Sales 2021

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Activision is looking to crown the next kings of Call of Duty Mobile, announcing the next COD Mobile Masters tournament beginning in June.

The semi-invitational tournament series will feature 32 teams–16 from both North America and Europe–in competition every Monday for five weeks starting June 14. Teams will compete for a $100K prize pool, with $50K available in each region. Both the European and North American competitions can be tracked on tournament organizer GameBattles.

Four teams in North American and eight teams in Europe have already been invited by Activision based on recent results, player standings, and placement in the 2020 COD Mobile World Championships. Those teams are as follows:

• North America
  • Mayhem
  • Tribe Gaming
  • Truly
  • Turbulence

• Europe
  • Aphelion eSports
  • Bunker Esports
  • Meseeks Mobile
  • Nova Esports
  • Singularity
  • Stamina
  • Tragik
  • White Dragon
  • Zenshu

Teams who have not been invited can qualify for the Masters competition via the Masters Open Qualifiers, happening in CoD Mobile May 29-30. Once the brackets are set, all Call of Duty Mobile Masters matches will be broadcast in-game as well as on the official CoD Mobile YouTube and Twitch channels.

Those planning on taking part in the open qualifiers should have plenty of fierce competition, as CoD Mobile recently surpassed 500 million downloads worldwide. Full tournament rules for those interested in participating can be found here.

If you asked a friend what comes to mind if you mention the words ‘toy car’ and ‘video game’, it feels likely their answer would be Micro Machines. The original Micro Machines game is an iconic smash hit that helped catapult Codemasters from being a budget 8-bit games publisher to becoming one of the UK’s top independent studios. The quality of the series it spawned may have wavered over the years but there’s no doubt Micro Machines remains a household name when it comes to top-down, turbocharged, toy-based racing.

It feels a little less likely the answer would be Hot Wheels, despite more than two-dozen video game tie-ins stretching back to 1984 and a 50+ year history of being the definitive die-cast car brand on toy shelves.

It’s obviously much too early to predict whether Milestone’s upcoming Hot Wheels Unleashed can singlehandedly change that, but from the early glimpses so far it certainly seems like this experienced racing studio is on the right (orange) track.

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“The first thing that we did in order to start with the right foot with the challenge was deciding to exactly replicate the vehicles that Mattel makes,” explains Milestone’s Federico Cardini, lead game designer on Hot Wheels Unleashed. “So the vehicles are a 1:1 reproduction of the toy cars – not some artistic rendition of what it could look like.”

“And so using this approach we actually added a lot of subtle hints around the entire game that actually suggest, or at least make you feel, that you are small. For example, maybe you don’t notice them while you’re watching a trailer but there are a lot of imperfections in the cars; there are the mould lines, which are the signs that are left when the car is cast from metal – or from plastic, of course – and then we have fingerprints on the track, which are almost invisible unless you see them from the right lighting, and then you have scratches. Our art direction department made a lot of research in order to get all those subtle details just right.”

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Lighting is obviously the other key part of crafting an authentic, miniature appearance. It proved quite the challenge, according to Cardini, because “the environments are gigantic.”

“So you need to have, just from a technical standpoint, shadows and reflections and everything working both at the level of the camera of the player, and also at the level of an environment that is 64 times your size!” Cardini chuckles.

“This was actually the harder part of the battle, because the lighting bridges the gap between the cars and the environments, and the environments are actually exactly 64 times the size of the vehicles. We decided to start with these two pillars of, in a sense, realism – exact toy cars, exactly as Mattel makes them, and the environment exactly as they are in reality. No tricks attached. Now that you have this, when you see that first impression, it feels right. It feels right.”

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Going for an overt, toy-sized take on Hot Wheels is not only a huge part of what distinguishes Hot Wheels Unleashed from Playground Games’ excellent Forza Horizon 3 Hot Wheels expansion from 2017, it means Milestone can be extremely playful when it comes to crafting environments. Cardini confirms there will be six environments in Hot Wheel Unleashed, all of which he insists will be unique in a certain way.

“The garage was our closed environment,” says Cardini, although he stresses there are three separate rooms in the garage and a lot of open space, adding that it’s “a more open environment that it may seem at first.”

“[The garage] was actually the inspiration for the entire game,” he says. “It’s something that sprung out by itself when we were deciding what to pitch [to Mattel] at the time. That environment is quite special, not only because of the general mood of the lighting, but the fact that it’s a little bit more of a night environment. The skyscraper is completely on the other end of the spectrum: above the clouds, there is sun coming in, a lot of space.”

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“I think that something that is really hard for us to communicate with a trailer is that we have these environments that are gigantic. Absolutely gigantic. And there’s a lot more of the environments that can be discovered, both when you build the track around the environments and when you actually discover where you can place your track. Since you can build your track both with the orange pieces and the environments, the environments take on a completely different meaning depending on how you use the track editor.”

Cardini is very keen to see what players create with the track editor and is confident people will be able to stun him with what they put together.

“I’m really interested to see what you can do with the track editor, which might be something silly for me to say because we made the track editor so I know what it can do,” he laughs. “But you know that players are always better than the developers – and every week I’m surprised by the tracks that our track designers are building – so I’m really looking forward to being surprised by the players when they have their hands on it.” 

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Between Supercross, MXGP, and MotoGP, Milestone has a confident catalogue of licensed motorsports sims in its stable, and it’s built up a strong reputation in the motorcycle game market. Hot Wheels is something very different for Milestone and, according to Cardini, the team is “really, really happy” to be working on it.

“There’s a lot of energy in the studio right now, because we are working on something a little bit different from our roots – or our, let’s say, more recent history,” he says. “But I think that the good part is that we have taken this opportunity to work with the Hot Wheels brand as a challenge to grow as a studio, because we’ve always been arcade racer fans so we have a lot of knowledge in the field, even if we’ve never had the chance to show it.”

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“And this is actually our opportunity. We decided to give to players our view of the arcade racing genre, which is also something that I’d say in the recent years has been – I won’t say lacking, because that’s not true – but I’d say limited in new entries or options.”

“Personally I just would love to hear the same reaction people had from the first trailer, which is, ‘This is how I imagined playing with Hot Wheels toy cars when I was young’. Because that was our intention.”

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Luke is Games Editor at IGN’s Sydney office. You can find him on Twitter every few days @MrLukeReilly.

We recently got some incredible sneak peeks into the latest and greatest games we’re getting in 2021. This includes Dying Light 2, which had an extensive Livestream showing off the new game. Preorders are now live, including the incredible Collector’s Edition.

The Days of Play sale also rocks on, with a great selection of deals on PS4 and PS5 games across retailers like GAME, Currys, Argos, and Amazon at the moment. The Last of Us Part 2 is down to £10, Spider-Man Miles Morales, Demon’s Souls down just £30 to £45, and classics like God of War now just £8. There are also some superb discounts on LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Fast and the Furious sets at the moment, making this one glorious day of deals.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for the latest deals on games, tech and accessories.

Dying Light 2: Stay Human Preorders Now Live

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Days of Play Sale: Incredible PS5 and PS4 Discounts

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2 for £25 on 4K UHD Blu-rays

These are just some of our favourites in the 2 for £25 promotion, so make sure to click through the promo page to see each and every one of the amazing films available in this offer.

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Zack Snyder’s Justice League Blu-ray, Now Available

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Zelda & Loftwing Amiibo Now Available to Preorder

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DualSense Midnight Black and Cosmic Red Now Available to Preorder

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PS5 Retailers Expecting to Restock Soon

Top tips for securing a PS5 in the UK. Make sure to create an account and add the console to your wishlist at your chosen retailer. Argos and Amazon are great examples of users easily being able to purchase the console without issue when going via their wishlist when the stock is live. Make sure you’re also following @IGNUKDeals for live stock updates.

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Best VPN for Watching US Netflix or HBO Max

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Robert Anderson is a Commerce Editor and deals expert for IGN. Send him awesome gaming screenshots @robertliam21 on Twitter.

A number of ex-developers from People Can Fly, the developer behind Outriders, have formed a new studio focused on a first-person shooter in 2021. As reported by Gamesindustry.biz, Gruby Entertainment was founded as an independent studio in 2020 by ex-People Can Fly developers Grzegorz Michalak, Karol Szyska, and Kamil Misiowiec.

The new Poland-based, fully remote studio was revealed by Super.com, the team’s first publishing partner. Super.com, which published Raji: An Ancient Epic last year, will provide consultation and guidance as part of the partnership. Gruby Entertainment’s goal is to create “high-calorie” gameplay for hardcore gamers in its games.

“We are thrilled to expand our team and knowledge base, and show the world a fresh approach to action games,” Misiowiec told Gamesindustry.biz.

The team consists of veteran talent that has worked on both independent titles and massive blockbusters like Outriders.

Outriders was a success for People Can Fly and Square Enix, both critically and commercially. In GameSpot’s Outriders review, critic Phil Hornshaw awarded the game an 8/10 and wrote: “[Outriders] is surprisingly deft at combining things that shouldn’t work together: Its story is often funny but similarly severe; its combat requires you to take cover and to charge; its abilities make you phenomenally powerful but prone to overestimating yourself.”

Square Enix announced that Outriders hit 3.5 million players in the first month and the publisher expects it to become the “next major franchise” for the company.

It’s a big year for Halo, with developer 343 Industries finally releasing Halo Infinite after a year-long delay from its original Fall 2020 release date as a launch title for the Series X|S. While it missed that date, 2021 is a special, fitting year for Halo, as it marks the 20th anniversary of the franchise and the Xbox brand overall.

Before Microsoft launches Halo Infinite, there may be beta period, according to comments from the developer, and it’s easy to sign up. In this story we’re running down some quick instructions on how to sign up for the Halo Insider program to earn a shot at getting chosen to participate in the upcoming trial.

How To Sign Up For Halo Insider

The Halo Insider program is free and open to everyone across console and PC. You can opt in to the Halo Insider program on Microsoft’s website, and the process is very simple and straightforward.

There are some important items to be aware of, however. For example, you must be at least 18 years old to participate, and you need to agree to a confidentiality statement. This says that those accepted into the program are not allowed to disclose the existence of any surveys or share images, videos, and more from beta tests, except where allowed.

If that’s OK with you, you are then taken to a page that asks you to enter your preferred email address for correspondence related to Insider matters. You also need to jot down a variety of personal specifics like your country and your time zone.

The Insider sign-up page then asks you to denote which Halo games you’ve played, which ones you like the best, and what kinds of modes within those games are you favorite.

The sign-up page also asks what platforms and controllers you own, what display settings you have, and what audio setup you play games on. You can also opt in to PC-specific beta tests on the Halo Insider sign-up page, and you’ll be asked to share your PC specifications and your Steam ID, if you have one.

Once you’re all signed up, all that’s left to do is wait and hope you are chosen. Microsoft says invitations to Halo beta tests are limited, and the company chooses participants based on “specific goals.” This means you might not get chosen for a particular test.

However, Microsoft said you can improve your chances by ensuring your Halo Insider profile is complete and accurate.

Flight Time

Microsoft’s beta tests for games are known as “flights,” and it’s expected that Halo Infinite will have at least one. Although Microsoft has scaled back its original plans for Halo Infinite beta-testing due in part to the delay, the company is reportedly planning a Halo Infinite beta testing period later this year, and signing up for Halo Insider appears to be the way to get in.

Open Beta?

Whether or not there will be an open beta for Halo Infinite remains to be seen, but it seems possible. Responding to the issues around The Master Chief Collection’s terrible launch, 343 boss Bonnie Ross said you can expect all future Halo games to be beta tested.

“Going forward, you will never see a Halo game coming out without a beta. It was obviously painful for our fans and for us. But it won’t happen again,” she told Game Informer (via Reddit).

For what it’s worth, The Master Chief Collection is in a much better place these days. That game regularly gets beta tests, or flights, for its new seasons of content. 343 releases new content and features for beta testers and then rolls out the changes publicly. Sometimes, the changes can be significant. For example, 343 tested two new Halo 3 maps for MCC in Season 6, but only one made it into the public release–the other was held back for further testing.

Next Up

343 recently canceled plans to release the next Halo Infinite devblog in May, instead opting to hold this announcement back until June due to the big Xbox summer showcase. That event takes place on June 13, and Halo Infinite is expected to feature in it prominently. Microsoft has shown precisely zero footage of multiplayer, so fans are no doubt hoping to see that and find out if battle royale has any part in it.