2020 is shaping up to be a very big and important year in gaming. Both Sony and Microsoft are releasing next-generation consoles this year, while Nintendo has confirmed that it will not release new hardware this year. The Japanese gaming giant has now commented on competing with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, saying the company is not afraid.
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said during a Japanese Q&A, translated by VideoGamesChronicle, that the PS5 and Xbox Series X will not have a meaningful negative impact on the Switch.
The target audiences for the Switch and the PS5/Xbox Series X are different, Furukawa said. “We do not believe that the business trends of other companies will have a significant impact on our business,” he said.
“We will explain the specific figures for the next fiscal year in our next fiscal year announcement, but I think there will certainly be a change in the environment as new products of our competitors appear,” Furukawa added.
The PS5 and Xbox Series X are scheduled to release this holiday. The Xbox Series X may actually contain more than one console, as Series X is the model name while “Xbox” is actually the name of Microsoft’s next-generation console.
Sony officially announced the PS4 in February 2013, so if the company sticks to the same announcement schedule, the official PS5 reveal could be coming up soon. Sony will announce its next earnings report on February 4, so we may soon learn more about the system.
Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was one of 2019’s most celebrated movies, and it earned 10 Oscar nominations.
While we have to wait a little while longer to see if it wins any, Tarantino has now shared some interesting insight into one character from the movie in particular.
SPOILERS FOR ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD FOLLOW BELOW.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood ends in dramatic fashion, with DiCaprio’s character, the ageing actor Rick Dalton, burning some of Charles Manson’s followers to a crisp with his flamethrower. He did this to help save his friend and stunt double, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt).
The movie doesn’t make it clear what happens to Dalton in the aftermath of that fateful night, and now Tarantino has filled in some of those details.
He told The Wrap that Dalton’s career begins to rise again, thanks to the way in which he murdered the Manson followers.
“The whole incident with the flamethrower and the hippies got a lot of play,” Tarantino said. “No one quite knows what a big deal that was, but it was still a big deal. And it’s a big deal that he killed ‘em with the flamethrower, with the prop from one of his most popular movies. So he starts becoming in demand again.”
One of Dalton’s earlier movies, The 14 Fists of McCluskey, gets put back in rotation on TV, and Dalton gets offered studio movies, albeit lower-budget ones, Tarantino said.
In addition to his surging film popularity, Dalton enjoys a comeback on TV as well. “On the episodic-TV circuit, he’s a bigger name now. He’s not quite Darren McGavin, all right? Darren McGavin would get paid the highest you could get paid as a guest star back in that time. But Rick’s about where John Saxon was, maybe just a little bit higher. So he’s getting good money and doing the best shows. And the episodes are all built around him.”
Tarantino is clearly invested in and enthusiastic about the wider Once Upon a Time in Hollywood universe. So much so that he told Deadline that he plans to direct a spin-off TV show focused on Dalton’s character from the fictional TV show Bounty Law.
The famous Broadway musical Hamilton is coming to theatres thanks to Disney. We’re now learning more about how it all came to be, and it involves a lot of money.
Multiple sites, including The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, and Variety, claim that Disney paid $75 million USD to acquire the rights to the Lin-Manuel Miranda movie. According to Deadline, this might be the highest-ever fee paid for a finished movie.
Unlike the movie versions of Cats or Rent, the movie edition of Hamilton uses footage captured during live performances of the show in 2016, just two weeks before the original cast left. It will also make use of “live capture” techniques to blend theater and film elements.
The Hamilton movie uses stage footage from three different live performances. There are also some “setup shots without an audience,” Deadline reported. “All of the footage was used to create multiple angles, to ensure the cinematic nature of the event, without a bad seat in the house,” the site said.
According to the reports, Disney outbid other companies in acquiring the Hamilton movie rights, including Warner Bros. Tommy Kail directed both the stage play used in the film, and movie version of Hamilton.
The Hamilton movie comes to theatres in North America on October 15, 2021. Release dates for other parts of the world have not been announced.
The big-screen adaptation will bring back writer and star Miranda as Alexander Hamilton, Daveed Diggs in a dual role as Maarquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson, Renée Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler, Leslie Odom, Jr. as Aaron Burr, Christopher Jackson as George Washington, Jonathan Groff as King George, Phillipa Soo as Eliza Hamilton, and Jasmine Cephas Jones as Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds, Okieriete Onaodowan as Hercules Mulligan and James Madison, and Anthony Ramos as John Laurens and Philip Hamilton.
Indiana Jones 5 is on the way, with Harrison Ford set to reprise his role as the archaeologist-adventurer. The movie was recently delayed by an entire year, and now Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has provided an update on how it’s coming along. She also confirmed a key detail about what kind of movie Indiana Jones 5 will be.
Speaking to the BBC at the BAFTAs, Kennedy said the creative team is working on the script currently, and once that’s done, filming can begin. She also confirmed that Indiana Jones 5–or whatever title Lucasfilm decides to give it–will be a “continuation” of the series instead of a reboot.
Some people had wondered and speculated that Indiana Jones 5 would reboot the series with a new character taking on the title role, but that seemingly will not be the case.
“We’re working away, getting the script where we want it to be, and then we’ll be ready to go. Harrison Ford will be involved,” Kennedy said. “It’s not a reboot–it’s a continuation.”
“We’re still trying. And I think we’ve got a good idea this time. We’ll see,” he said.
Steven Spielberg, who directed all the previous Indiana Jones movies, is coming back to direct, with Ford returning as well to play the the iconic archaeologist. Indy’s son Mutt, played by Shia LaBeouf in 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, will not return in the new movie.
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull might not have enjoyed the best reviews, but it grossed more than $786 million worldwide to stand as the most successful Indiana Jones movie ever. Altogether, the series has brought in nearly $2 billion at the global box office across all four releases.
Apex Legends celebrates its first birthday with the start of Season 4: Assimilation on February 4. It’s been quite the year for Respawn’s battle royale–if you haven’t played the game since it launched, you’re in for quite the surprise if you decide to jump in now. So, as Apex Legends goes into its second year, let’s look back at the year that was to see how the game has evolved.
On February 4, 2019, Respawn revealed its new Titanfall game was not actually Titanfall 3 as many expected. Instead, we were getting a free-to-play battle royale that takes place within the Titanfall universe. It was called Apex Legends, a fun little nod to Titanfall’s Blisk and his Apex Predators.
And then Respawn did something rather bold–it said the game was now out. Just immediately ready to download on Xbox One, PS4, and PC. No fanfare. No year-long campaign of trailers and conference appearances. Just an announcement and release.
The Beginning Of Year 1
And that somehow worked. Apex Legends got one million players within eight hours and then skyrocketed to 2.5 million within the first day–very impressive for a game with almost zero marketing behind it at launch. On February 11, Respawn announced that Apex Legends had seen 25 million players within its first week with two million peak concurrent users.
Like Titanfall 2, the shooting and movement mechanics were solid and the map was well-designed. Fans fell in love with the diverse cast of characters, as well as the welcome improvements Respawn made to the battle royale formula with a ping system and hero abilities. Like most games-as-a-service titles at launch, there were bugs to fix and balancing changes to implement, but Apex Legends offered enough content in those first few weeks to keep players coming back.
Initially, Apex Legends’ narrative was rather simple–the game told the stories surrounding the Apex Games, a blood sport created by a mysterious corporation called the Syndicate in the aftermath of the war between the Frontier Militia and the IMC. Those who participate in the games and regularly win are known as legends. Each legend joined in the Apex Games for their own reasons. IMC soldier Anita “Bangalore” Williams is hoping to earn enough cash to book passage out of Frontier space so she can see her family again, for example, while Ajay “Lifeline” Che is trying to right the wrongs of her war profiteering parents by raising money and awareness for humanitarian groups.
On February 13, Respawn released an update that included limited-time Valentine’s Day-themed cosmetics–our first hint that Apex Legends would hold in-game celebrations for certain holidays. A week later, on February 20, Apex Legends got its first new weapon: the HAVOC assaultrifle. These early content drops suggested Respawn would regularly update the game with new content, and fans began eagerly waiting for something more.
A month after Apex Legends released, Respawn announced that the game had 50 million players and the developer released a video thanking its community. The video also jokingly poked fun at the Mozambique shotgun, which was the worst gun in Apex Legends at launch (by far, by like a noticeable margin). If anything, it seemed to imply that Respawn was hearing what its community had to say about Apex Legends’ shortcomings and was working on the problems that fans were bringing up.
But the novelty of the game began to wane around this time. Apex Legends still had no challenges or battle pass to speak of. There wasn’t really anything to strive for, other than just getting better.
Season 1: Wild Frontier
Apex Legends would finally get its first battle pass on March 19 with the start of Season 1: Wild Frontier. The first season added a new character too: Octavio “Octane” Silva. The backstory of the adrenaline junkie provided a nostalgic tie to Titanfall 2, when players would break the Gauntlet record by propelling themselves with grenades. His abilities weren’t exactly game-changing, but Octane’s playfully reckless (and full of wrecks) attitude towards life still makes him one of the most enjoyable add-ons to Apex Legends.
Apex Legends still didn’t have challenges though, and without them, it was very difficult to level up in the battle pass. In the following weeks, Respawn would go on to implement gameplay adjustments, like a new Fortified passive perk for Makoa Gibraltar and Alexander “Caustic” Nox, as well as bug fixes, but nothing substantial. Unless you were on PC, of course–Respawn used this time to put a serious dent in the efforts of cheaters that had been dominating the PC version of the game. Months would go by without additional content. This long dry spell would see some players drop the game (including me for a short time if I’m being honest).
11 weeks after the start of Wild Frontier, Apex Legends finally got a major content update. June 4 saw the start of Wild Frontier’s first and only limited-time event, Legendary Hunt. The event made it easier to level up in Wild Frontier’s battle pass. Better yet, it provided a good reason to even buy the pass in the first place–battle pass owners could nab some sweet-looking legendary rewards during Legendary Hunt. It was the shot in the arm that Apex Legends needed, especially with Season 2 around the corner.
But before Season 2 started, Respawn also began fleshing out Apex Legends’ story. On June 8, Respawn released the first of its Stories from the Outlands, a collection of animated shorts. On June 12, the Apex Legends Twitter account made its first story-focused tweet, marking the point when the account would occasionally adopt the persona of a news anchor that existed within the Titanfall/Apex Legends universe. Small in-game map changes (like a misplaced laptop and the arrival of flyers) also started popping up, hinting at upcoming content that the community could discuss and theorize about.
Season 2: Battle Charge
On June 27, Respawn released the cinematic trailer for Apex Legends Season 2: Battle Charge, which confirmed a lot of the story and lore that fans had been speculating about–a mysterious hacker going by the callsign Crypto was taking an interest in the Apex Games and the flyers and Leviathans that had previously existed on the outskirts of the map were now invading the arena. Battle Charge began on July 2, implementing map changes and adding both new character Natalie “Wattson” Paquette and new light machine gun the L-STAR. Wattson was a game-changing addition to Apex Legends. The game’s true first defender, Wattson possesses little in the way of offense when it comes to her abilities, but she can lock down a zone in a matter of seconds and outright negate the abilities of certain opponents.
Battle Charge was a turning point for Apex Legends after the disappointing Wild Frontier. Not only did it finally deliver on daily and weekly challenges, it introduced a battle pass with worthwhile rewards. Ranked was also added as a permanent mode, and both in-game events and cinematic trailers further fleshed out Apex Legends’ lore. August 13 saw the beginning of the Iron Crown Collection event (which included the long-requested Solo mode), Stories from the Outlands “Voidwalker” premiered on September 2, the Voidwalker event began on September 3 (which included a map change and the Armed and Dangerous mode), Stories from the Outlands “Forever Family” released on September 19, and the cinematic launch trailer for Season 3 came out on September 27. There was just more to do during Battle Charge in comparison to Wold Frontier, whether that was a new limited-time event to play, new story details to discuss, challenges to complete, or battle pass levels to earn.
That said, Battle Charge wasn’t all positive (heh, get it?). Iron Crown Collection marks one of the few times that Respawn encountered controversy over microtransactions. Like Legendary Hunt, Iron Crown Collection introduced new cosmetic skins, but these could only be unlocked through the purchase of special Apex Pack loot boxes, not challenges. Apex Packs offer randomized rewards, leading to fan outrage over there being no surefire way to get the couple of skins you wanted other than buying enough loot boxes to guarantee good luck (about $150 USD).
Respawn admitted it had made a mistake by solely tying the Iron Crown Collection rewards to loot boxes and changed the event so that individual skins could be purchased. To balance this change against the risk vs. reward system of loot boxes, Respawn made the prices of individual items more expensive than individual Apex Packs–allowing players to spend a little more to get specific items or spend less and rely on luck. This seemed to satiate the playerbase, because the outrage mostly settled down after the change. Respawn would implement this system in every subsequent event that featured loot box rewards.
Season 3: Meltdown
Battle Charge was followed by Season 3: Meltdown, which introduced the long-teased Tae Joon “Crypto” Park as a playable character, added the Charge Rifle, and once again implemented challenges and a battle pass. However, instead of map changes, Apex Legends got a whole new map, World’s Edge, that fundamentally altered how teams had to work together to win.
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Apex Legends Season 3’s New Map Has Won Us Over, But It’s Not Perfect
The new World’s Edge map emphasized movement more so than the original Kings Canyon. The most sure-fire way to find high-tier loot was to chase down the moving train or shoot down one of the flying cargo bots to find a key to a vault. Because of the map’s larger size, you also had to typically account for traveling a longer distance when the ring began to shrink. It suddenly became much more important to have a character on your team who could quickly get your squad from one spot to another.
Not every player liked the change, but World’s Edge–and to a greater sense, all of Season 3–was an example of how Respawn was willing to experiment with Apex Legends’ formula. For example, the Halloween-themed Fight or Fright showcased how Apex Legends might look with two maps at once. The Christmas-themed Holo-Day Bash introduced Apex Legends’ first game mode that wasn’t focused around the mechanics of a battle royale. And the roaring 20s-themed Grand Soirée Arcade saw seven modes rotated into the game, some of which offered very unique ways to play.
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Apex Legends – 9-Kill Win On Kings Canyon After Dark Gameplay
In the final weeks of Meltdown, Respawn subverted its audience’s expectations in order to market Season 4: Assimilation. The developer didn’t just reveal the new legend as it had in the first three seasons. Instead, Respawn announced one legend, used another to kill the first, and then teased a few more. The developer doubled-down on fleshing out Apex Legends’ narrative and lore too, revealing it had actually been setting up several intriguing storylines for Year 2.
Which brings us to the start of Season 4: Assimilation and the beginning of Year 2. A lot sure has changed with the battle royale, but what makes Apex Legends so fun–that chase to be number one–is still the same. It still remains to be seen what Respawn has in store for Apex Legends’ second year, but if Year 1 is any indication, it’s sure to be an eventful one.
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Apex Legends Season 4 – Assimilation Gameplay Trailer
The MCU is coming to Disney+, and we got our first look at footage from the new Marvel shows WandaVision, Falcon and Winter Soldier, and Loki during a Super Bowl commercial. Here are our top 8 theories about what’s happening based on the new TV Spot.
Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is kicking off with a bang on screens both big and small. The Super Bowl was prime time to showcase some of the upcoming projects Marvel Studios has waiting in the wings. We got our first ever official clips of three upcoming MCU Disney+ shows: The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, WandaVision, and Loki.
Naturally, with only 30 seconds of footage, we were left with some pretty major questions for all three, but that’s where the fun can really begin. GameSpot rounded up their biggest MCU and Marvel comics fans to go through every frame of footage and come up with our top theories. What’s going on with Sam Wilson as the potential new Captain America? Is Baron Zemo really a bad guy now? Is WandaVision actually in the Wakandan Matrix? Is Loki in time jail? We can’t be sure–but we’re absolutely going to start guessing. Let’s break down some of the biggest and most interesting details from the Super Bowl Disney+ spot and see if we can figure out what they might mean.
The Last of Us: Part II will reportedly carry an M for Mature rating in the United States. The game’s website (via Dualshockers) shows the M rating from the ESRB, but the ratings group has yet to officially publish its rating for the game, so it may only be a placeholder.
That being said, the rating is filled out with multiple content descriptors, so it does at least appear to be official-looking in nature. The content descriptors include: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, and Use of Drugs.
That’s all to be expected from what is looking like a very violent and intense game that is not recommended for children. No one should be surprised by this, as the first Last of Us was also a brutally violent game.
The original Last of Us had a M rating as well, but there are some differences in the content descriptors. That game featured warnings for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, and Strong Language.
The sequel, meanwhile, has all of those descriptors as well as Nudity and Sexual Content. For reference, ESRB defines Nudity as “graphic or prolonged depictions of nudity.” Sexual Content is defined as “non-explicit depictions of sexual behavior, possibly including partial nudity,” while “Sexual Themes” pertains to “references to sex or sexuality.”
The Last of Us: Part II is still months away from its release date in May, so it is possible that its ESRB rating will change. Again, the ESRB has not yet published its official rating for the game.
Confirming earlier rumors, Platinum Games has now launched a Kickstarter campaign for The Wonderful 101 Remastered, a Switch port of the Wii U-exclusive with a funding goal of $50,000 until the campaign wraps on March 6. And in less than 30 minutes, the initial funding goal for the campaign was a success.
In the time since launch, crowdfunding has pushed past the $500,000 milestone, which means the remaster is coming to Steam and PlayStation 4 alongside the Switch. This marks the first time The Wonderful 101 will be available on a non-Nintendo platforms.
The next major funding milestone is one million dollars, at which point a time attack mode will be added to the game. This mode is described by Platinum Games as “a speedrunner’s dream.” Beyond that, a completely new side-scrolling 2D game called Luka’s First Mission will be added to The Wonderful 101 Remastered.
Pledge tiers range from ¥3,900 (roughly $36) for a digital version of the game, all the way up to ¥550,000 (roughly $5,000), which includes a ton of perks: apparel, merchandise like stickers and a soundtrack, and of course, getting blocked by the infamous blocker and Wonderful 101’s director, Hideki Kamiya, on Twitter. If you’ve been dying to be blocked on Twitter by Kamiya himself, that starts with the ¥11,000 (roughly $100) tier.
The Kickstarter campaign comes hot on the heels of a tease from earlier today by Platinum Games, with the launch of a mysterious Platinum 4 website. That page has since been updated to unveil that there are four projects being discussed soon, and Wonderful 101 Remastered is the first out the gate.
Platinum Games’ Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya talked about The Wonderful 101’s Kickstarter campaign in an interview with GameSpot. The duo also discuss whether they’d consider reviving other games and how former Castlevania developer Koji Igarashi influenced their decision to seek out crowdfunding.
Weekly game deals tend to be a little scarce at Best Buy compared to other stores, but the retailer just launched a big sale on some great games. The sale includes over 50 titles, and most of the best deals are for Nintendo Switch, although some great PS4 and Xbox One discounts are available as well. While no end date is listed, it’s like these deals will be available all week long. And as usual, Amazon is price-matching some of these discounts as well.
Aside from Nintendo Switch, there are quite a few good PS4 deals and a handful of Xbox One deals available as well. Catherine: Full Body, a remastered PS4 port of the 2011 puzzle-platforming hit, is a full 50% off, now selling for $30. The excellent Yakuza spin-off Judgment is also on sale for $30 exclusively for PS4. However, both PS4 and Xbox One owners can get Red Dead Redemption 2 ($40), Devil May Cry 5 ($25), and Resident Evil 2 ($25) on sale.
Check out more of the best game deals below, and see the full offering of discounts at Best Buy. When viewing at Best Buy, you’ll have to filter to see the games that are on sale.
Kamiya told IGN Japan that the dual-screen gameplay of the Wii U version will be rearranged for a single screen on Switch and other platforms, different than the single-screen mode that existed in the Wii U versions, and that the user interface will be redesigned for modern systems. Kamiya also lamented that the easy mode in the original game was too hard, so a new easy mode is planned for the remaster to make the game more approachable.
“I have another chance to share this game with the world, so I would like to make the most of that by releasing a more polished version,” said Kamiya, director of the original game.
The 2013 game required the player to draw symbols on the Wii U Gamepad screen, and of course some of the target platforms for the remaster do not have touchscreens. However, the original game also allowed players to use the analogue sticks instead of the touchscreen, and Kamiya told us that this was in fact his recommended way to play, stating that he had specifically ensured that the analogue inputs were just as smooth as the touchscreen commands.
PlatinumGames’ Chief Creative Officer Inaba added, “We started working on the game before the Wii U platform existed, and so the core mechanics of the game predate the technology of the Wii U. So removing touch input will not heavily affect the remastered versions.”
While the game will be optimized for modern game systems, the content of the main game itself will be unchanged for the remastered edition, with no new content being planned by PlatinumGames for the story mode. Instead, new content will take the shape of as-yet-undecided extra modes if the Kickstarter campaign’s relevant stretch goals are met.
“The original game included a large volume of content, with tons to unlock, so adding anything to that would make it overwhelming and ruin the balance of the game,” said Kamiya. “I don’t think the fans of the original game are looking for more story content. More would not be better in this case.”
“Instead, we are thinking of stretch goals that will add some other kinds of side content such as extra modes or new ways to play what was already in the main game,” added Inaba. The pair said that ideas for this content are still being worked out. Currently the announced stretch goals are only related to Steam and PS4 ports.
Inaba admitted that The Wonderful 101 is a difficult game to explain and to sell, but said he feels that the depth of its gameplay would appeal to gamers. In this regard, he said he takes encouragement from the success of Platinum’s 2019 title Astral Chain, which featured similarly unusual gameplay mechanics, but was able to find a wide audience on Switch.
While The Wonderful 101 was originally published by Nintendo as a second-party title, the remaster will be published by PlatinumGames, as the Osaka company’s first self-published game. “Nintendo’s kindness has allowed us to expand to other platforms,” PlatinumGames wrote in a statement sent to IGN Japan.
The aim of the campaign is less about gathering funds and more about checking whether anyone even wants a remaster of the game, which is why the target sum of $50,000 is so low. Since 2013’s The Wonderful 101 was not deemed a success on Wii U, a platform that sold poorly in itself, Platinum hopes that the crowdfunding campaign will help to determine whether there is fan support and market demand for a remaster.
In January, PlatinumGames announced a capital alliance with Chinese giant Tencent Holdings, receiving an undisclosed sum of investment, and stated an intention to begin self-publishing certain titles. But Inaba, says that the crowdfunding campaign for The Wonderful 101 is not affected by this deal, and that the capital alliance is intended to secure the future of Platinum as a company.
One of the campaign rewards includes getting blocked by Kamiya on Twitter, a tongue-in-cheek nod to the developer’s reputation for giving short shrift to fans who break his self-imposed rules of engagement. With Kickstarter campaigns being reliant on community support, we asked Kamiya whether he would go more gently on fans this time.
“Of course he will! He’ll be kind!” exclaimed Inaba. Kamiya, for his part, just laughed.
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Daniel Robson is Chief Editor at IGN Japan, and Esra Krabbe is on the editorial team. Find them on Twitter at @nomoredaniels and @rined1987 – neither of them have been blocked (yet) by Hideki Kamiya.
