Blue Box Game Studios is looking to put the minds of gamers at ease by offering up a free copy of the studio’s upcoming PlayStation 5 game Abandoned to those who purchased an unfinished, early access version of the studio’s previous game, The Haunting: Blood Water Curse.
The news, via an IGN interview with Blue Box head Hasan Kahraman, comes in the wake of the studio releasing a “realtime experience app” for PS5 that didn’t go exactly as planned. When the highly anticipated trailer (after multiple delays) didn’t actually turn out to be a trailer at all but instead just a gif of a man walking that had already been shared on Twitter, skeptical players began to renew their investigations into Blue Box’s history.
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What they found, as illustrated by Reddit user TicTacPaul, is a history of cancelled and unfinished games dating back to 2015, with multiple cancelled Kickstarter projects and games pulled from sale while still in early access and seemingly, ahem, abandoned.
That’s the case with The Haunting, Blue Box’s most recent game, which released last year in early access. The game was later pulled from sale, with Blue Box announcing a different, unknown indie studio called CreateQ would be taking over development. Kahraman says CreateQ is a four-man team composed of friends of Blue Box, who are working on The Haunting as a side project.
Kahraman says those who purchased the early access version of The Haunting originally will soon be able to fill out a form and provide proof of purchase on the Blue Box website to receive a free copy of Abandoned. When asked about offering refunds for The Haunting, Kahraman says the team would work on it should there be a demand.
Kahraman goes on to say the current plan is to release The Haunting for free upon its completion on PlayStation, Steam, and Xbox along with the first gameplay trailer for Abandoned. That will happen in “a few months,” according to Kahraman.
Given the history of the studio and everything that has transpired thus far, exactly how much of what Kahraman is planning will see the light of day seems up for debate. But it’s the idea that some believe Blue Box is intentionally misleading people that bothers Kahraman the most.
“If I were a gamer and if someone else was doing exactly the same thing, I would be really hyped to see a realtime experience, and if it wasn’t coming, I would be disappointed,” Kahraman tells IGN. “But they’re labeling us as scammers–that hurts. I still respect everyone really, and I’m hoping to see them still looking out for Abandoned, [despite] what they say. I do understand and I have nothing against them really. It only hurts.”
It’s just the latest piece in the ongoing Abandoned saga, which has also seen the game become a hotbed for Hideo Kojima and Silent Hill related conspiracy theories, in part thanks to a lack of details on what the game is even about. Abandoned is currently still slated for a late 2021 release.
Hollywood news site Variety has a new report out that breaks down the salaries for some of the highest-profile TV roles, and included on the list are two names that have a connection to gaming. The report reveals how much money Pedro Pascal is making to play Joel on HBO’s The Last of Us and the fee that Henry Cavill is apparently getting for Netflix’s The Witcher.
According to the report, which is based on estimates provided by sources to the website, Pascal is being paid $600,000 USD per episode to appear in The Last of Us. There are 10 episodes in all, so he stands to make $6 million in total. Now, that’s pre-tax and before paying agent fees and other costs he might incur, but it’s still a big baseline payday.
As for Cavill, the report says he makes $400,000 per episode on The Witcher. The first season had eight episodes and the second will have eight as well. Assuming Cavill is paid $400,000 per episode in both seasons, he will make $6.4 million USD before taxes and fees.
The richest TV deal listed in the report goes to Chris Pratt for Amazon’s The Terminal List, which pays him $1.4 million per episode. That is a different situation, however, as Pratt is also a producer, which presumably earns him more money per episode.
These fees are so big in part because of the changing landscape. According to the report, “in the agent of streaming, cash is mostly all upfront.” Some deals might include a so-called back-end element that lets talent earn more, but this isn’t believed to be as lucrative as it once was.
For example, the famous story goes that the cast of Friends collectively bargained to be paid $1 million each per episode, in addition to sharing revenue from the show’s ongoing syndication deals. As of 2015, the show was bringing in $1 billion every year from syndication, with all the main stars making $20 million a year from that based on their 2 percent share of syndication revenue, according to USA Today.
In a thoroughly enjoyable new profile on Michael Keaton in The Hollywood Reporter, the actor shares his thoughts on the dawn and rise of the superhero film genre. Keaton will be reprising the role of Batman he originated in the 1989 Tim Burton film for the upcoming movie The Flash–according to this THR piece, he “just finished shooting” that performance.
Since the OG Batman movie, Keaton says he’s been “stunned” by the genre’s explosion both in print and on screen. While he recently proudly has self-appointed himself the best Batman of all time (who would argue?), he made a point in this profile to share credit with Burton: “What Tim did changed everything… Everything you see now started with him. If you really think about what happened between 1989 and now, on a cultural, corporate, economic level, it’s unbelievable.”
Still, he admits he is not and has never been a comics fan–though is “awed by the phenomenon.” Keaton said, “after the first Batman, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an entire [comic book] movie… I just never got around to it.” Elsewhere in the profile, Keaton admits he doesn’t understand the MCU.
However, Keaton clarified that he’s not dismissive of the genre. It’s just something he missed his point of entry with. Nevertheless, he said his time on The Flash as Batman was eye-opening: “What’s really interesting is how much more I got [Batman] when I went back and did him. I get this on a whole other level now. I totally respect it… This is a big deal in the world to people. You’ve got to honor that and be respectful of that. Even I go, ‘Jesus, this is huge.'”
The Flash is currently scheduled to hit theaters on November 4, 2022.
Michael Keaton will once again don his giant metal wings as he plays Adrian Toomes, AKA The Vulture, in Morbius, which arrives on January 28, 2022. While Keaton appeared in the first trailer for Morbius, back in January 2020, the actor was confirmed to be reprising the Spider-Man villain in Sony’s upcoming film in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
While he’s played Marvel’s Vulture and DC’s Batman, Keaton says he’s never been a fan of comics and doesn’t think he’s ever seen a comic book movie. So when it came to reprising the role as Vulture, which he first played in the MCU’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, the Morbius filmmakers discussed recent Marvel plot points and explained the universe to him.
“I’m nodding like I know what the f*** they’re talking about,” Keaton told THR. “I go, ‘Uh-huh.’ And I’m thinking, ‘You may as well be explaining quantum physics right now to me. All I know is I just know my guy. And I know the basics.’ So finally, they were looking at me, and they just started laughing. They said, ‘You don’t know what we’re talking about, do you?’ I said, ‘No, I don’t, no idea what you’re talking about.'”
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the release date of Morbius has shifted quite a bit. Sony has declared the movie is not part of the MCU–it’s a part of its own “Sony Pictures’ Universe of Marvel characters.” However, with the ending of Loki and Keaton reprising his role of Vulture–which was featured in a Sony Marvel movie that took place in the MCU–anything is technically possible. It’s a multiverse, and it’s all very confusing.
Sony’s next Marvel movie is Venom: Let There Be Carnage, which arrives in theaters on October 15. In a recent trailer, we finally got to see Carnage, which will be played by Woody Harrelson.
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl and Pokemon Legends: Arceus will be compatible with Pokemon Home, but not at launch. Near the end of the latest Pokemon Presents stream, The Pokemon Company confirmed that support for the upcoming Switch games will be added to Pokemon Home sometime in 2022.
Once support has been implemented, you’ll be able to transfer Pokemon you caught in Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl and Pokemon Legends: Arceus and store them in Pokemon Home. Beyond that, however, details are scant. It remains unclear if transfers will be one-way, as they are with Pokemon Go, or if you’ll be able to bring compatible Pokemon you’ve caught in other games from Home into Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl or Legends.
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Like Pokemon Bank for 3DS, Pokemon Home is a cloud service that lets you store Pokemon you’ve caught in different games in one place and move them between titles. The service has free and paid plans. The latter costs $16 USD annually and offers more benefits, including significantly more storage capacity, a Judge function that lets you see a Pokemon’s base stats, and the ability to transfer monsters from Pokemon Bank.
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl arrive on November 19 and are remakes of Pokemon Diamond/Pearl for the DS. While they stay largely faithful to the original titles, Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl also introduce a few new features such as Pokemon Hideaways–new areas within the Sinnoh Grand Underground that feature different terrain and Pokemon.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus, meanwhile, is a new adventure set in ancient Sinnoh, when the region was known as Hisui. In addition to new gameplay elements, Legends is introducing a few brand-new Pokemon to the series, including a regional evolution of Stantler called Wyrdeer and a regional evolution of Basculin called Basculegion. The existing Pokemon Growlithe and Braviary will also have new regional variants in Hisui.
Michael Keaton will be one of two Batmen appearing in the upcoming The Flash movie. A new profile on Keaton goes in-depth on why the actor agreed to take up the cowl again, and how he was initially confused by how his Batman will even appear in The Flash.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Keaton says he agreed to appear in the movie after being impressed by the script, written by Birds of Prey writer Christina Hodson. Though if Keaton is being honest, it took him three tries at the script to understand how his Batman returns.
“I had to read it more than three times to go, ‘Wait, how does this work?’” Keaton says. “They had to explain that to me several times.”
But Keaton says it’s not the fault of anyone but his own given that the concept of a multiverse is sometimes difficult to grasp.
“I’m not being arrogant, I hope, about this. I don’t say it like, ‘I’m too groovy.’ I’m stupid. There’s a lot of things I don’t know about. And so, I don’t know, I just kind of figured it out, but this was different,’ Keaton admits.
While The Flash plot is under wraps, many have inferred that it will adapt some storylines from Flashpoint, a story arc where Barry Allen uses his speed to travel back in time and save his mother. Only this also messes up the future.
While it likely won’t be a direct adaptation, this could help introduce multiple Batmans (Ben Affleck is set to return for the movie as well) and potentially refresh the DC universe for future films.
Keaton, who turned down reprising the role of Batman in Batman Forever after disagreeing with the script, is back for The Flash because of the script and director Andy Muschietti’s vision. But Keaton always imagined returning to the role.
“Frankly, in the back of my head, I always thought, ‘I bet I could go back and nail that motherf*cker.’” Keaton confides.
Sony just kicked off two new sales across the PlayStation Store, slashing the prices on literally thousands of games in a myriad of genres. Through September 1, you can take advantage of a bunch of discounts on titles like Celeste, Doom Eternal, God of War, Hyper Light Drifter, and Yakuza 0. Keep in mind you still have until August 19 to shop the PSN Summer Sale as well.
The Games Under $20 Sale is back and drops the price of some 300 big-name PlayStation games. This includes a two-pack bundle featuring Far Cry 4 and Far Cry Primal for $20 and the Ultimate edition of Dragon Ball FighterZ for just $16.50. Yakuza games are also on sale, including both Kiwami entries, as are PlayStation exclusives like Bloodborne, God of War, and Persona 5.
The Indies Sale discounts over 1,300 games. While the sale prices vary wildly, you can get titles like Celeste for $6, Goat Simulator for $2.50, and Hyper Light Drifter for $7. Other indies, such as Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and Little Nightmares, are also pretty cheap.
Below, you can check out the full sales (as there’s far too much to mention here) along with our picks for some of the best deals to grab this week. Keep in mind PS Plus members will save even more on select games–make sure you’re signed in to grab those extra discounts.
The next movie in the Captain America franchise will star Anthony Mackie, according to a report from Deadline. Mackie will once again play Sam Wilson, donning the mantle of Captain America, which he played in the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
According to Deadline’s sources, not else is known about the Marvel movie at this time. Captain America 4 was originally announced back in April. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s head writer, Malcom Spellman, is spearheading the new movie. Spellman will write the script with Dalan Musson–both of whom worked on the Marvel Disney+ series together. No director has been attached at this time.
As for some of Wilson’s friends he’s made along the way, like Bucky (Sebastian Stan), it’s unknown who else could appear in the film. Seeing as Disney+ show ended with US Agent (Wyatt Russell) being taken under the wing of Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus)–who also appeared in Black Widow’s post-credit sequence–there is a chance they could both return for the film. And that means there’s a possibility of a newly rebuilt Hydra. But again, no details for the upcoming series have been revealed, so this is just speculation based on where Wilson’s story ended on the Disney+ show.
Marvel’s next movie release is Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which arrives only in theaters on September 3. While the movie isn’t out yet, there have been a few reactions from critics on Twitter that praise the upcoming film. The film’s star Simu Liu recently responded to Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s remark calling the theatrical-only release of the movie “an experiment.”
The Halo-inspired portal shooter Splitgate is having its time in the limelight, and a huge amount of people have flocked to the game during its ongoing beta test. Since its launch in July, the open beta has hit 10 million downloads–but this has come with some growing pains.
Along with this milestone, developer 1047 Games also announced that it is going to keep the game in open beta “for the foreseeable future.” The free-to-play beta’s current battle pass will end on August 24, though, meaning players only have about a week left to either level up through gameplay or buy levels to get all of the pass’s items.
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There’s no word yet on when the beta will end, but we do know that the game’s full release is delayed indefinitely. According to a press release, the studio realized that it cannot simply throw more server capacity at the game; rather, its scalability issues require more complex fixes. The developer teased more news coming at Gamescom on August 25, though, so we will likely have to wait for clarity on the game’s timeline.
Despite originally coming out in early access way back in 2019, Splitgate’s popularity has surged this summer and shows no signs of abating. The studio originally planned to launch the 1.0 version of the game at the end of August, but the massive influx of new players and corresponding stress on its infrastructure led 1047 Games to make the decision to delay the game.
Although its full release is likely a ways away, you can still dig into Splitgate’s beta right now for free on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. In addition, the studio said that it’s working on current-gen upgrades for the game, although it gave no timeline for release.
Finding extra space on your PS4 hard drive is almost as difficult as finding a PS5. But, if you do have one, you may notice the memory filling up quickly. Once you install Red Dead Redemption 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, and a few more of the best PS4 games, your PS4 will likely be running low on available space. As a result, you may find a 1TB hard drive filling up surprisingly quickly, especially if you play live-service games with frequent updates. Thankfully, you can upgrade your PS4 hard drive by either swapping for a higher capacity internal drive or using an external portable drive.
Adding an external drive is the easiest and most convenient option, but you’ll also want to consider upgrading the internal drive. The benefit with an internal drive, specifically an SSD, is that it improves boot times and make your PS4’s operating system run a bit quicker and more smoothly. You can, however, get the benefits of faster load times with internal or external SSDs. You could even swap out the internal drive and add an external SSD to really maximize both key points: speed and capacity. The PS4 supports up to 8TB of internal storage and 8TB of external storage. We’ve outlined the steps for upgrading your PS4’s hard drive below.
Finding PS4 model number
Before you attempt to install a new internal hard drive, you first need to identify your PS4 model. It could be an original PS4, a PS4 Slim, or a PS4 Pro, and if you don’t already know which version you have, you can identify it by finding the model number on the console. The model number for an original PS4 will begin with CUH-10xx, CUH-11xx, or CUH-12xx and is located on the bottom of the console, toward the back. The PS4 Slim model number is situated at the back of the console, to the right of the power port and will begin with CUH-20xx. Meanwhile, the PS4 Pro model number begins with CUH-70?? and can be found above the ports on the back of the system. On your console, the “xx” will be replaced with actual digits.
Backing up saves and the tools you need
Before you can start replacing your internal hard drive, you need to make sure you have a few items. First, you need a Phillips-head screwdriver (and for the PS4 Pro, a fairly long one). You also need a USB stick in order to install an up-to-date PS4 firmware after the drive is installed. Once you install your new hard drive, you can visit PlayStation’s website to download the necessary files.
You’ll also want to back up your saves. You have two options here: If you’re a PS Plus subscriber, you can back up your saves to the cyuloud and retrieve them once you’ve installed the drive. If you’re not a PS Plus subscriber, you will need to plug a USB stick or external hard drive into your PS4 and transfer over all the data you would like to keep.
Of course, you also need a new internal hard drive, and we’ve highlighted a few recommendations above. How much storage space do you actually need, though? It really depends on your PS4’s current capacity (500GB, 1TB, or 2TB) and your gaming habits, so you’ll have to make the right decision for you. All 2.5-inch internal drives will work with the PS4. You may want a modest capacity SSD to pair with an external drive, but it’s up to you. Just know that internal SSDs with more than 2TB of storage are extremely pricey.
How to upgrade hard drive for PS4 Pro
PS4 Pro
Turn off and unplug your PS4 Pro and place it, upside down, on a table or other flat surface.
In order to access the hard drive, you first need to use your finger to remove the plastic covering all the way to the right on the back of the console.
Once the plastic covering is removed, you should be able to see the hard drive mounting bracket, which is held in place by a screw.
Use the screwdriver to remove the screw and pull the mounting bracket out. You should see four screws holding the hard drive in its mounting bracket.
Remove all four with the screwdriver and pull the hard drive out of its mounting bracket. Then, insert the new hard drive.
From here, you will go back through the steps in reverse. Replace the four screws to secure the hard drive into the mounting bracket. Reinsert the mounting bracket into the PS4 Pro, and replace the screw to secure it in place. Finally, put the plastic covering back in place.
How to upgrade hard drive for PS4 Slim
PS4 Slim
To begin, turn off your PS4 Slim, unplug it, and place it, facing away from you, on a table or other flat surface.
On the right side, you should see an L-shaped plastic piece that covers the PS4’s back right corner.
Slide it to the right to remove it, revealing the hard disc drive. Pull on it to remove it.
The hard drive is held in the mounting bracket by four screws which you will need to remove with the screwdriver.
Take out the old hard drive and replace it with the new one, and replace the screws.
Put the hard drive back in the console and replace the L-shaped plastic piece.
How to upgrade hard drive for PS4
PS4 (base model)
Turn off and unplug your PS4 and place it, facing you, on a flat surface, so that the PlayStation logo is on the right.
Move the panel on the left until you hear a click and move it less than a centimeter to the left.
Now, you can remove the panel, revealing the hard drive in its mounting bracket. Use the screwdriver to remove the screw holding the bracket in place, then remove the bracketed hard drive.
The mounting bracket is held in place by four screws, which you need to remove.
Once the screws are out, remove the old hard drive and replace it with the new one, then replace the screws.
Place the hard drive back in the console and replace the screw that held it in place; then put the panel back on the console.
Using an external drive for PS4
If you want something more convenient (and aren’t swayed by an internal SSD’s operating system improvements), an external drive requires significantly less work, and you can still get faster load times with an external SSD. There are two kinds of external drives: portable (which is small, lightweight, and simply plugs into your device of choice) and desktop (which requires an accessible power outlet). Virtually all portable hard drives work with all PS4 models, and if you want the added storage that comes with a desktop drive, many are compatible with PS4 as well. We’ve included a few recommendations here from popular brands like Seagate and Western Digital.
In order to use an external drive with your PS4, you will first need to format it after connecting it to the system.
To do so, go to Settings, then scroll down until you see the Devices tab.
Click this and then scroll until you see the USB Storage Device option and select your external hard drive.
From there, click Next and Format. The hard drive will begin the process of formatting to the PS4 and any games installed from that point on will be stored to the hard drive.
