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Square Enix has cancelled the four Starwing Paradox tournaments scheduled this weekend as a precaution after several death threats were sent to the mecha arcade game’s management team.

In an official Square Enix statement, the company says it has reported the threats and is cooperating fully with police. As a precautionary measure, tournaments for both this weekend and next weekend in Tokyo, Yokohama, Fukuoka, and Nagora have all been cancelled. Square Enix has apologised to those looking forward to the events.

This is just the latest in a series of threats against Square Enix in 2019. Earlier this month a man was arrested by Tokyo police after threatening the company with an arson attack, stating that he would repeat the terrible Kyoto Animation tragedy. This followed another incident in March when a man was arrested after threatening to kill Square Enix staff because he spent over 200,000 yen ($1,794 / £1,500) attempting to unlock a specific item in a gacha game (the video game equivalent of capsule toys).

Meanwhile, around 30 emails were sent to Square Enix last September with the word “kill” written in Japanese. Authorities are currently investigating if there is any connection between this and the other death threats the studio has faced.

NHL 20 is less than a month away, and EA Sports has now shared some detailed information on the changes and additions we can expect to see in franchise mode when it launches on September 5 for EA Access subscribers, September 10 for owners of the Deluxe and Ultimate editions, and September 13 for everyone else.

After numerous years of minimal changes, NHL 19 took franchise mode a step further with the implementation of an all-new scouting system that altered the way you evaluated prospects, trade targets, and free agents. NHL 20 builds on this by introducing coaches to franchise mode. New features such as line chemistry, a brand-new conversation system, and new scouting reports, all tie back into the coaching staff of a team and impact how you construct your roster.

At the start of franchise mode, the game will generate a variety of fantasy coaches with their own sets of ratings and roles that revolve around offence, defence, powerplay, penalty kill, teach, and influence, with each one having a direct impact on the team. Offence, defence, powerplay, and penalty kill attributes affect gameplay and game simulations, while teaching can either grow or stunt a player’s development via player potential. Each coach also has a teaching speciality that dictates the type of player they like to teach. Influence, on the other hand, ties into the growth of coaches. If your head coach has high influence, that will help the coaching staff grow faster, with individual coaches accumulating stats that might result in them earning the Jack Adams Trophy during the end of season awards.

Much like players, coaches in NHL 20 also have their own morale which is impacted by team performance, management, coaching staff, and player relationships. Balancing team morale and chemistry amongst both your players and coaches will be key to any success you achieve out on the ice.

Part of the process of hiring new coaches is, of course, interviews. You can interview a coach prior to offering them a contract to get a better gauge of the type of team they’re looking to coach, the market they prefer, and the fan base they gravitate towards. AI teams will also fire and hire coaches throughout the season based on expectations. If a team goes on a long losing streak, a coach might find themselves on the hot seat. Once NHL players retire they can also transition into becoming coaches.

Scheme Fit and line chemistry summarizes how well each player fits on their current line. This is based on the strategies the coach has set for their lineup, the style an individual player like to play, and each player’s preferred position. Chemistry ranges from -5 to +5, and these ratings have an effect in both gameplay and during simulations. Constructing your lines to squeeze the most chemistry out of your setup will be paramount. This also grants you more freedom in how you strategize. Some might want to build a balanced attack, while others will prefer to play their top-tier players as much as possible.

When it comes to recruiting new players, you’ll be able to use a new scouting report to find and evaluate potential fits for your team. There are two new Amateur Scouting Reports and two new Pro Reports. The latter is the best way to determine if a player fits your coaches’ scheme and where they fit in the lineup. A player with a lower overall rating might fit your scheme better than a higher rated player who doesn’t, boosting your line’s chemistry or tanking it. Scheme Fit is also valuable information on Amateur Scouting Reports, while NHL ETA will give you a good idea of when a prospect may be ready to compete in the NHL. Draft day interviews also tie into this, letting you interview prospects prior to the draft to unveil extra scouting information.

Finally, a new Trade Finder allows you to make trades faster without having to go back-and-forth with trade proposals between teams. You can now select any assets you wish to trade and will receive offers for them, while picking players from other teams will let you see their asking price.

Other changes can be seen below:

• PTS/G Trade Value Mod – This gives players trade value boost or penalties based on how they are performing during the year. Players playing well can be traded for more value in trades and vice versa (goalies use SV%).
• PTS/G Salary Mod – Performance based Salaries; Players who do exceptionally well will ask for a lot more money. In some sims players reaching 100+ points and asks for 10 million dollars, in other sims the same player has sub 1.00 PPTS/G and asks for ~8 million. This should also fix the issue where players who are in the minors and ask for 2M+ without ever playing in the NHL.
• Teams will now put bad contracts on the trade block to free up cap space if an RFA (Restricted Free Agent) player wants a contract extension and they don’t have cap space.
• Goalies are now worth less than skaters in regards to trade value and we have improved goalie signing and trading logic in Free Agency.
• Players with 1 year left on their deals will have less value as the season goes on. So at the Trade Deadline, players with 1 year left will be worth less than full value and at the NHL Draft, these players will be worth significantly less.
• Players with bad value can be traded with addition of sweeteners to a trade. Increased the Bad Contract Mod so players with bad contracts require a lot to be added so a team will accept the trade.
• Added exception contracts to the game. So players in the QMJHL, WHL and OHL don’t count towards the 50 man contract limit.
• Added a Trade Alert popup that stops the sim if someone in the league makes a big trade.
• Added a Sim Engine scoring Setting; increases scoring or decreases scoring based on the setting (High, Med, Low). The default is set to medium.
• Wingers are now worth less than centers and defensemen in regards to trade value.
• We decreased Scout efficiency so now you won’t have full info on all the draft-eligible at the end of the year. This should stop users from stacking Elite players in the NHL Draft.
• Tuned Down the number of Elite and Franchise potential goalies in the draft.
• Tuned the distribution of medium grade prospects so they are a little more hit and miss.
• Added Scout Recommendations to the View Draft Class Screen.
• Tuned the trade blocks of CPU teams wants/gives.
• Added original placements to the Draft Lottery popup.
• Added an ‘Add contract year’ setting for Expansion Custom Rosters flow.
• Added ‘Auto-Owner mode’ setting which takes care of arena maintenance.

NHL 20 launches September 13.

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Prior to the box office failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story, it had been rumored that the next standalone movie in the long-running franchise would be an Obi-Wan Kenobi movie starring Ewan McGregor. The commercial disappointment of Solo led to the cancellation of further standalone Star Wars films, but it has now been reported that McGregor could be set to reprise the role for a new TV show.

According to Deadline, the actor is in talks to play the Jedi Master in a series that will premiere on the upcoming streaming platform Disney+. McGregor played Obi-Wan in George Lucas’s Star Wars prequel trilogy, namely The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002), and Revenge of the Sith (2005). He also made a brief voice cameo in 2015’s The Force Awakens.

There are no further details about the potential Obi-Wan show, and it is unknown if it will differ from the rumored movie. While the film was never officially announced by Lucasfilm, it had been reported that Billy Elliott director Stephen Daldry would helm it, and it would be set on Tatooine before the events of the original 1977 Star Wars movie.

If it happens, the Obi-Wan show will be the third live-action Star Wars heading to Disney+. The service launches in November with The Mandalorian, which stars Pedro Pascal and has Lion King director Jon Favreau as showrunner. A trailer is yet to be officially released online, but footage was shown at Star Wars Celebration in April. There’s also a show centered around the Rogue One character of Cassian Andor in the works. For more on Disney+, check out GameSpot’s guide to everything that will be available on day one.

In related news, the trailer for Star Wars: Resistance Season 2 was released this week. The second and final season of the animated Star Wars show returns to the Disney Channel on October 6.

Loot Crate, the subscription service that sends its subscribers curated boxes every month full of items relating to various pop culture franchises, has filed for bankruptcy and let go much of its work force. Although the website and store is still up, Loot Box is now on the market for acquisition. It is expected to finalise a sale within the next 45 days.

As Gizmodo reports, last month the company let go 150 of its warehouse workers, and dozens of other workers have been let go this week. Loot Crate has received a commitment from Money Chest LLC for more funding of up to $10 million, which will allow the company to keep operating for now. According to the press release the company put out about their situation, “employees and customers should not notice any difference in operations as a result of the filing or during the sale process except for the better.”

However, some customers have reported not receiving new boxes from Loot Crate for months – responses to the company’s tweet about their bankruptcy point towards customers who are as many as seven boxes behind on their subscriptions. Former senior community manager Shawnee Hale has tweeted out that those let go did not receive severance pay, either.

Whether Loot Crate will be able to continue operating into the future, and how it will fulfill its existing obligations to subscribers, remains unclear. According to the LA Times, they currently owe about $20 million worth of unshipped crates.

Henry Cavill is playing Geralt in The Witcher Netflix series, which we’re very much looking forward to. But if you really can’t wait for Cavill to step into Geralt’s huge boots, you can grab this mod for the PC version of The Witcher 3.

The mod, released by Adnan4444 on NexusMods, replaces Geralt’s usual face with one that resembles Cavill in the upcoming series. “This mod page will be a base for different Henry Cavill variations in future,” the page reads. “With scars, dirt, brown hair with blue eyes etc, but first of all, now I’m presenting a look closer to Geralt in Netflix show.” The screen below shows a Geralt that much closer to the British actor in appearance.

The Witcher 3 is also available on PS4 and Xbox One, and is coming to Nintendo Switch later this year. This mod, however, is only available for the PC version.

Shantae 5 is now officially named Shantae and the Seven Sirens. WayForward has revealed some new details about the next Shantae game, and dropped some screens to give fans a taste of the upcoming game’s gorgeous visuals. The fifth game in the long-running series was announced back in March, but little information has been available until now.

The game has been unveiled on Wayforward’s website. It will send Shantae and her friends to a tropical island, where they’ll meet several other half-genies. Of course, things won’t go smoothly, and the eponymous half-genie will find herself tussling with numerous enemies. Some first-look screenshots are below.

The game promises to feature all new dance abilities and Fusion Magic, as well as a nonlinear world to explore. There will also be a collectible card system, which will let players change Shantae’s abilities. The game will support 4K resolution on systems that can handle it, and will feature numerous minigames, hidden secrets, and “gorgeously animated TV-style cutscenes.”

Shantae and the Seven Sirens is coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Apple Arcade, and a release date has not been announced yet – it’s not clear whether it will release in 2019 or not. The last game in the series was 2016’s Shantae: Half-Genie Hero. In his 8/10 review, Jason D’Aprile called the game “a delightful experience”.