The Witcher is really, really popular–so much so that Netflix’s CEO gave it special mention above all others during the company’s latest earnings report. Reed Hastings not only called out The Witcher as the company’s latest big win, he described the series as a “massive new franchise.” He also suggested that it will continue to live on for years and years.
Hastings said he was really happy with The Witcher’s performance and that it helped Netflix end 2019 “on a high note.” He described the show as a “massive new franchise that will develop season after season.”
His line about “season after season” suggests that Netflix is keen to invest in The Witcher for a number of seasons to come. Netflix believed in The Witcher from early on, as the company greenlit the second season before the first even premiered.
Season 2 is expected to debut in 2021, and it seems Season 3 may follow after that, though no announcements have been made.
A collection of Mortal Kombat remasters that Warner Bros. reportedly pulled the plug on back in early 2019 appears to have been resurrected, based on a new rating spotted in the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) database. Mortal Kombat Kollection Online, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch, has been rated PEGI 18 due to “frequent strong violence.” The entry can still be found in the PEGI rating database at the time of writing.
The explanatory text provided alongside the new PEGI rating describes Mortal Kombat Kollection Online as “the original Mortal Kombat trilogy that MK fans always wanted” and makes reference to “[u]pgraded art, gameplay, and online features.”
In April 2019 it was reported that Blind Squirrel Games (BioShock: The Collection, Forklift Simulator 2019) had been preparing to work on a remastered collection of the first three Mortal Kombat games following a successful pitch to Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon, but Warner Bros. quickly opted not to have Blind Squirrel Games continue on the project. WB reportedly claimed it could not “trust development of such an important project to a team without any completed game titles.”
The PEGI scheme covers the bulk of Europe and the UK (and Israel) in a similar fashion to North America’s Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB).
Temtem, a new PC MMO that is clearly inspired by Pokemon, has just launched in Early Access on Steam. The game, which costs $35, lets you catch, train, and battle with your Temtem, and explore the world alongside other players.
It’s a good proposition for PC players who want a Pokemon-style game, or even players who were disappointed with Pokemon Sword/Shield, which it’s currently cheaper than. That might not remain the game forever, though, as developer Crema has suggested that the game’s price will rise in the future, before it has left Early Access.
On the game’s Steam page, a developer Q&A states that the game is about 50% complete right now, and will take about 20 hours to play through. The final product will be much bigger, but people buying the game now are paying less than customers will have to pay for later versions of the game.
“We believe in giving advantages to our early supporters, so the current Early Access price will be raised gradually as we ship new content and features,” it says. It’s unclear when this might happen, or how high the price would go, but if you’re interested in the game it might be worth picking it up sooner rather than later.
In her hands-on preview, Kallie Plagge said that the game is an interesting twist on what we’ve seen before from the Pokemon series.
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Gears of War boss Rod Fergusson has spoken about the importance of inclusive game design and diversity in the workplace. During his keynote address as PAX South, Fergusson said he was inspired by the Stephen Frost quote, “Unless you consciously include, you will unconsciously exclude.”
“We had to find a way to welcome new players and create an on-board for them. The way we really focused on doing that was through inclusive design,” Fergusson explained.
The veteran game developer said his perspective as a straight white man limits his ability to create games that appeal to people from all different walks of life and social circles.
“If you live within your own tower, and your own insular base–I’m a straight white old male–my social circles and my demographics and all the people I reach could potentially be limited, or if not limited, biased in some ways,” he said. “If I don’t consciously make the decision to break out of that idea and go and talk to other people and hire people who are diverse to bring new opinions and new ideas and grow–if you don’t do that intentionally, then you are going to accidentally leave people out.”
Over the years, Fergusson said the Gears of War franchise has done more to “lean in” to further inclusivity and diversity. He acknowledged that the franchise is known for being macho–it features giant men and huge guns, after all–though he said he is proud of the steps the studio has taken to make games that appeal to more people. The latest entry, Gears 5, features the Kait Diaz in the lead role; it’s the first female protagonist in the series.
The newest episode of GameSpot’s Audio Logs features Fergusson speaking about, among other things, inclusive game design. Check it out in the video embed above.
The next Gears game coming up is Gears Tactics, which is a turn-based strategy game for Xbox One and PC made by Splash Damage. No new entries in the mainline series have been announced, but given Gears 5 was such a huge success, a sequel is likely in the works.
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Production on the first Disney+ MCU TV show, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, is well underway and, naturally, as filming progresses so do the “leaked” photos of characters on set courtesy of fans lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the action as it unfolds. That’s exactly how we’ve received our first real look at Wyatt Russell’s new MCU character, John Walker–AKA US Agent.
If your immediate reaction to Walker’s look is “wait, isn’t that just a new Captain America suit?” Don’t worry–you’re not alone. Fans on social media are eagerly pointing out the similarities between Walker’s patriotic uniform and the many costumes worn by Steve Rogers across the MCU’s phases 1 through 3. But these overlaps aren’t a coincidence and they’re certainly not an accident. In fact, Walker looking like a knock off Steve Rogers happens to be the entire point of his character.
No, really. That’s it. That’s John Walker in a nutshell. Let me explain.
Originally called Super-Patriot, John Walker was introduced back in the mid ’80s with a pretty simple purpose: He was, first and foremost, meant to be a supervillain that could exemplify the darker side of patriotism against Steve Rogers’ heroism–someone who believed that Steve, and by extension Captain America, was espousing all the wrong values in American society. Walker thought Steve was “outdated” and wanted to replace him, even going as far as to manufacture fake crises that he could act on to earn himself media attention. Getting the press on his side was one of Walker’s biggest goals and something he actually had a ton of success in (the public being tricked into believing that Captain America actually sucked was a fairly common recurring theme in his ongoing comic, especially through the ’60s and ’70s). By the end of Walker’s first story arc, he had the media in the palm of his hand and Steve both blackballed by the public and physically on the ropes.
Naturally, this whole fiasco culminated (at least indirectly–Steve being threatened with a major tax fraud case by the government was also part of it–don’t ask) into another common, recurring theme in Captain America comics: Steve Rogers becoming completely disillusioned with both the government and his mantle and deciding to give it all up and reinvent himself. He quit being Captain America, turned over the shield, and created a new identity for himself: The Captain. He also grew a beard and fought a bear. It was a very exciting time.
But of course, simply handing the shield and the costume back to the government didn’t put an end to them. This was before Steve’s identity as Captain America was publicly known, so inventing a new Captain America was as easy as handing the suit and the shield over to someone else. This is where media darling John Walker got his chance, adopting the mantle as the new Captain America while Steve was off living as a renegade hero.
But, of course, it all went very, very wrong not long after–who could have guessed that a radically patriotic supervillain would eventually make an extremely bad Captain America?
Naturally, Walker was eventually sent in to try and stop The Captain, a fight that resulted in Steve exposing Walker for the monster he was and returning to his proper station. Stripped of his title, Walker was forced to do some real soul searching before he eventually took on the name US Agent and adopted a modified version of the costume Steve wore as The Captain because apparently he’s genuinely never had an original thought in his life.
Obviously, Walker’s story can’t play out exactly the way it did in the comics in The Falcon And The Winter Soldier. For one thing, Steve is off the table thanks to Avengers: Endgame–but that doesn’t mean the themes of the story will change much. Judging by the set photos, we can assume Walker’s government-sponsored status is going to be in full effect, but instead of being sent after bear-punching vigilante Steve Rogers, he’s likely going to be aiming for Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson, the two men directly in the running to pick up the Captain America mantle in Steve’s wake. But the idea of the government trying to promote a patriotic superhero that they can keep on a very short leash certainly doesn’t need to change–after all, Steve Rogers made a pretty spectacular point of burning his bridges back during Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, so it’s only natural that Walker come into play in one way or another. But regardless–looking like a “knock off Captain America” is exactly what he’s supposed to be.
The Falcon And The Winter Soldier hits Disney+ in the Fall of this year.
The upcoming PS4-exclusive Ghost of Tsushima is one of the biggest games coming in 2020, and while we won’t be able to play it until later this year, you can grab a free PS4 dynamic theme right now. Developer Sucker Punch tweeted a series of region-specific codes that will grant you the atmospheric and beautiful theme that can be seen in the tweet below. However, you better act fast, as the codes are only valid until January 31.
Each code applies to a specific region, which means you’ll have to use the correct one for where you live. If you want to redeem the code on PC or mobile devices, all you have to do is go to the PlayStation Store website, click your account’s avatar, select “Redeem Codes,” and then put in your code. However, if you’d like to do this on a PS4, then go to the PlayStation Store and choose the Redeem Codes option on the navigation bar on the left. Once that’s done, you’ll have a brand-spankin’ new dynamic theme for your PS4.
Here’s a free #GhostOfTsushima PS4 Dynamic Theme 🍂 Americas: BEFB-AMNR-R4F6 Europe/AU/NZ/Russia/Middle East/Africa/India: 38BE-G6N8-L93A Japan: N4TK-59NH-2LH3 Korea: EM56-NTNC-EHX8 Rest of Asia: DHLN-HANF-F6LH Codes expire Jan 31, 2020. Redeem region-specific code on PS Store. pic.twitter.com/3uhAZepBr1
— Ghost of Tsushima 🎮 Summer 2020 (@SuckerPunchProd) December 23, 2019
Ghost of Tsushima releases on PS4 this summer. It’s Sucker Punch Productions’ first game since Infamous: First Light, which released all the way back on August 26, 2014. If you’re interested in learning more about the upcoming PS4 exclusive, including insight on its combat, story, and historical accuracy, then we have everything you need to know about Ghost of Tsushima.
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The date makes a lot of sense–it’s also when the next SpongeBob SquarePants movie, Sponge on the Run, is due to release. The film features CGI animation, so the game and the movie will look very similar.
The original Battle for Bikini Bottom released on PS2, Xbox, and GameCube in 2003 (the PC and GBA games were distinctly different.) Rehydrated is a remake, and while the game did not receive stellar reviews it became a cult classic, and is popular among speedrunning communities.
This remake will feature new multiplayer modes, as well as content cut from the original game. It has also received a complete visual overhaul.
SpongeBob’s history with games stretches back to the Game Boy Color (Legend of the Lost Spatula) and the original PlayStation (SuperSponge). The most recent SpongeBob game was SpongeBob HeroPants for 3DS, Vita, and Xbox 360 in 2015. The license is owned, as it was in the PS2 days, by the reformed THQ Nordic.
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The Netflix show The Witcher has proven to be incredibly popular. The streaming network announced in its latest earnings report today that The Witcher has been viewed by 76 million households through its first four weeks.
Based on that momentum, The Witcher is on track to become Netflix’s “biggest season one TV series ever.” It’s not clear what Netflix means by “biggest,” however. At the end of 2019, Netflix announced that The Witcher was one of the most popular shows or movies on the network, but this is the first time Netflix is disclosing viewership statistics.
The 76 million number is huge, but it also might not necessarily reflect how many people have watched The Witcher in earnest. Netflix now counts a viewer when someone watches a TV show or movie for at least 2 minutes. Previously, Netflix counted a viewer as an account that watched at least 70 percent of a movie or a single TV show episode.
The new data-reporting system means viewership figures are now about 35 percent higher on average than before. This means The Witcher’s 76 million viewers would be around 49.4 million. Whatever the case, it’s clear The Witcher is off to a very good start on Netflix.
Lauren Hissrich, the showrunner for The Witcher, responded to the Season 1 viewership news by thanking her cast and crew. “I could not ask for a better gift for this tremendous cast and crew,” she said.
