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Xbox boss Phil Spencer wants to bring Xbox Game Pass and the overall Xbox ecosystem to more people than ever, but releasing an “Xbox app” on a rival console is not going to happen, at least not yet. Asked directly by GamesRadar if there would be an “Xbox app” for Nintendo Switch, as people have theorized, Spencer said Microsoft is more focused on growing Xbox on the web, PC, and mobile to meet its scale ambitions as opposed to putting Xbox on Nintendo Switch or another “closed” platform. In fact, Spencer pointed out that “those closed platforms don’t want something like Game Pass” anyway.

“You know, it’s the right question because people usually ask me about releasing one individual game or another. And what I say is I want the full Xbox experience to be something that we deliver,” he said. “We have no plans to bring it to any other kind of closed platforms right now, mainly because those closed platforms don’t want something like Game Pass. There’s a ton of open platforms out there for us to grow in: the web, PC, and mobile. So all of our focus, frankly, is on those platforms.”

While there might not be an Xbox app for Switch or PlayStation anytime soon, Spencer said he hopes to see even more connectedness between rival platforms through cross-play.

“For us to succeed, I don’t think another company has to get smaller. I want the industry to continue to grow and accelerate its growth, and if you buy a Switch, and you want to play Minecraft, and I happen to buy my kids a PlayStation… if they can’t play together, that doesn’t help gaming grow, in my mind,” he said. “That war might help one device win over another device, but it doesn’t help the industry. I believe focusing on player joy, ease of play, and accessibility, in the long run, is the right strategy. And I think the industry will move in that direction, because that’s what gamers will demand.”

Another way Spencer hopes to see gaming in general grow in the future is by breaking down the traditional barriers that make it difficult for get started. Other entertainment mediums like film, TV, and books are generally easier and less expensive to get into compared to games, Spencer observed. With some games, on the other hand, it is generally difficult and expensive for newcomers to get started–and Spencer is hoping to change that.

“We should just all recognize that not everybody grew up with a controller in their hand,” he said. “I don’t envy movies, or TV, or books, but I think there is an accessibility that those media have. That is something that we should think about as an industry. Let’s say I want to go play the next great console game. So I’ve got to go buy this console, I’ve got to go hook it up, I don’t know how to use a controller–because I haven’t done that before–so I’m gonna have to practice and learn.

“We think a lot about that accessibility point, and–not to bring it back to Game Pass–but some of that is financial, you know. These games are $70. That’s a lot of money compared to these other artforms that we talk about.”

In an effort to make Xbox more accessible to a bigger audience–Microsoft is targeting billions of people, after all–Xbox has announced it has partnered with TV manufacturers to put Xbox gaming options directly into TVs. Microsoft also recently announced it will create Xbox-branded streaming sticks that people can plug into a TV to play the latest games. In another effort to expand Xbox, Microsoft is working with telecom providers on “new purchasing models” like Xbox All Access that allow users to get a console (with Game Pass) for a monthly price instead of paying more up front. This is the model that has been popular and widespread for smartphones for many years.

To make this all worthwhile and valuable from a content perspective, Microsoft also recently announced that it plans to release at least one new first-party game every three months, which is to say nothing of the vast third-party support on Xbox.

The trailer for the new Shudder movie Superhost has been released. The movie hits AMC’s horror streaming service on September 2.

Superhost focuses on Teddy and Claire, a pair of vloggers who host a popular show titled Superhost. The concept is innocent enough–they stay at various vacation homes around the country, get to know their hosts, and review the experience online. But when they come to stay at the remote woodland house of a woman named Rebecca, things start to go wrong. Although Rebecca is clearly very eccentric, she seems harmless enough–but as the trailer makes very clear, she isn’t all she appears to be. Check it out below:

Superhost stars Osric Chau (Supernatural) as Teddy, Sara Canning (Nancy Drew) as Claire, and Gracie Gillam (Z Nation) as Rebecca, plus horror icon Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator, Jakob’s Wife). It’s directed by Brandon Christensen, who previously helmed the movies Still/Born and Z, both of which are also available on Shudder.

In a recent interview with Elderfanfilms, Christensen discussed the themes of Superhost. “It’s a look into how willingly we are to stay in someone’s house, and how we really take for granted how absurd it is on the surface,” he said. “You never know if the person you’re staying at is whom they say they are.”

For more, check out GameSpot’s guide to the biggest upcoming horror movies of 2021.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Naraka: Bladepoint is a 60-player action battle royale game with a variety of melee, ranged weapons, abilities, and unique movement options. There’s a lot to unpack, but here’s a quick look at Naraka: Bladepoint before you jump into the fray, which is available now on PC.

Lord of the Rings was borne of the mind of British author J.R.R. Tolkien, but brought to life in the early 2000s by Kiwi director Peter Jackson. While the films and the first season of the upcoming show were shot in New Zealand, though, the series is heading back to its birthplace for Lord of the Rings Season 2, Variety reports.

The as-yet-untitled series completed shooting this month and is now moving into post-production. For Season 2, though, the show reportedly will make the move to the United Kingdom in 2022.

“As we look to relocate the production to the U.K., we do not intend to actively pursue the Season One MoU five percent financial uplift with the New Zealand government or preserve the terms around that agreement,” said Amazon Studios COO Albert Cheng. The first part of that statement is the important part–official confirmation from Cheng that the production is heading to the U.K.

Ever since Peter Jackson’s first shots for Fellowship of the Ring, the live-action adaptations of The Lord of the Rings have been shot primarily in New Zealand, making this the first time a modern Lord of the Rings production has gone anywhere else. Variety notes that Amazon has a bunch of other productions in the U.K., including Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens Season 2 and Nancy Boys, and Naomi Alderman’s novel The Power. In other words, this seems like an effort to condense production and simplify finances for the studio.

“We want to thank the people and the government of New Zealand for their hospitality and dedication and for providing The Lord of the Rings series with an incredible place to begin an epic journey,” said Amazon Studios vice president Vernon Sanders. “We are grateful to the New Zealand Film Commission, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Tourism New Zealand, Auckland Unlimited, and others for their tremendous collaboration that supported the New Zealand film sector and the local economy during the production of Season One.”

Previous reports about the show have it set during the Second Age of Middle-Earth, thousands of years before the events of the Lord of the Rings films. Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood has expressed confusion at the show being called Lord of the Rings, considering this, though it’s worth noting again that the show’s title is not yet confirmed. It seems likely that it will have Lord of the Rings in the name for branding purposes, but that’s not guaranteed. Viggo Mortensen, meanwhile, had good things to say about Season One director J.A. Bayona.

Amazon reportedly has spent nearly half a billion dollars on the show so far. The company’s official description for the show says it’ll have “familiar” characters as well as new ones. Characters like Legolas, Arwen, Elrond, and Galadriel’s ages reach into the thousands of years, so any of those older characters–not to mention Gandalf–could conceivably appear. The Amazon Prime Lord of the Rings series is currently set to hit Prime Video on September 2, 2022.

Making fun of a place usually isn’t the best way to get a job there, but it turns out that it worked swimmingly for comedian and actor Bill Burr, he revealed on the Your Mom’s House podcast recently (via The Hollywood Reporter).

Burr featured in an episode each of The Mandalorian Season 1 and Season 2 as mercenary Migs Mayfeld.

“I went to [director] Mike Binder’s birthday and Jon [Favreau] was there, and he said, ‘Hey, we’re writing this thing. We kind of have you in mind. Do you want to do it?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know, Jon. I have teased Star Wars people a lot.’ He goes, ‘I know. I listen to the podcast a lot. I think it would be funny if you got in it,'” Burr told host Tom Segura. “My wife was kicking me under the table and I was like, ‘all right, I’ll do it.'”

Burr says he doesn’t actually hate Star Wars, instead chalking it up to professional duty.

“I just was hating on it as a comic,” Burr said. “You see a thousand people excited about something, you’re going to make fun of it.”

“I got there, and it’s just fun to work on something that’s that big,” Burr said, describing the Volume, the full-surround stage used to film The Mandalorian. “They shot this footage that they then project onto the walls, right? So as I’m talking to you, if the camera moves behind me, the stuff behind you moves, you get like, vertigo. So that’s why I think the acting in those scenes is really good–you have to lock in on the actor because if you start looking at the other stuff you’re gonna tip over.”

The Mandalorian Season 3 began filming earlier this month, but there’s no word on whether Burr will reprise his role as Migs Mayfeld. The story and cast for the show are under tight wraps at the moment. Giancarlo Esposito confirmed that he’ll return as Moff Gideon along with Pedro Pascal as Mando himself. The Book of Boba Fett has finished shooting, which stars Temuera Morrison as Boba Fett and Ming-Na Wen as Fennec Shand. The Book of Boba Fett is expected to hit Disney+ this December.

There’s finally some good news in store for HBO Max subscribers–according to Vulture, the execs behind the platform are aware of the app’s unpredictable instability, and are reportedly getting ready to do something about addressing it. An unnamed WarnerMedia exec has gone on record, promising that an entirely new app is coming.

“We’re going to replace every single connected TV app in the next four or five months,” said the exec. The upgraded app has been in development since late last year, and is expected to roll out to Roku and PlayStation users first (though no timeline was disclosed), with AppleTV coming before the end of 2021, while mobile and web-based apps are being slated for “early 2022.”

The same exec quoted above also promised it “will be wildly better than what’s out there” and “just work better across the board.” Of course, easier said than done–the real proof will be once customers have the app installed and use it at their leisure to pressure-test and watch content as they would normally. HBO Max has apparently blamed the recurring issues on complications from the ad-supported tier, distributing programming to non-English speaking markets, and that HBO Max was running on a retrofitted version of the old HBO Go and HBO Now services.

While bugs and tech hiccups are increasingly part of the streaming landscape, HBO Max has far and away been the one plagued with the most problems. It’s easy to, as this exec has done, promise a “sophisticated and cool and sexier” interface and user experience–at this point, all customers really want is to watch HBO Max, and not know whether the app will crash repeatedly.

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