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Those who pre-ordered Google Stadia‘s Founders Edition will be the first to log-in next week when the service kicks off on November 19. It doesn’t look like being smooth sailing for Google, however. The recently announced launch lineup has already been roundly criticised for an underwhelming scarcity of games (not to mention a lack of exclusives), and now the list of missing features at launch is also a growing concern.

In a Reddit AMA with Stadia’s Andrey Doronichev and Beri Lee, the pair of Google employees revealed that the company’s cloud-based games service would be rolling out next week with a host of missing features. For example, Stream Connect, State Share, and Crowd Play (all features based around multiplayer) won’t be available at launch. Stream Connect may arrive before the year’s end, but State Share and Crowd Play won’t be up and running until sometime in 2020.

PC Chrome gameplay won’t support 4K, HDR, or 5.1 surround sound on day one either. Stadia will be able to stream 4K/HDR/5.1 on Chromecast Ultra, but support on PCs won’t be added until 2020. The Stadia controller will only work wirelessly when using the Chromecast Ultra dongle, too, so if you want to play Stadia’s launch lineup on a PC, tablet, or phone, you’ll have to plug the controller in. On top of this, existing Chromecast Ultra devices won’t support Stadia until a firmware patch is released sometime after launch.

The achievement system is also missing, there won’t be a family sharing option until early 2020, and The Buddy Pass for Founders won’t arrive until two weeks after Founders have received their bundle. Controllers aren’t all being sent out at once either, so you may have to wait a few days after November 19 to receive yours, which means playing with a keyboard and mouse to begin with.

“Our approach to releasing features on Stadia is similar to how we run Google Search, YouTube, and other Google services: gradual rollout and continuous improvement, based on your feedback,” Doronichev said. “We always start with nailing the key user-journey and then proceed with releasing extra features. YouTube started with ‘watch video.’ For Stadia it’s ‘Play the Game on your biggest screen.’ New features will start popping as soon as one week after launch. I expect the first game with Stream Connect to launch by the end of the year. The games that support State Share and Crowd Play will be released next year. And of course, there are many more cool new platform features on the roadmap. We’re aiming to release new stuff weekly after 11/19.”

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The first episode of The Mandalorian has already launched–you can watch it now, and read our review. Star Wars fans with fresh subscriptions to Disney’s new streaming service, Disney+, will usually have to wait a week between installments over the show’s ten episode run. Disney has opted for a traditional weekly release structure over the Netflix-popularized “binge” model, whereby an entire season is dropped online at once. However, the wait between episodes one and two is shorter than the wait will be for episode three onward, and fans who like to watch fast and avoid spoilers will want to plan accordingly.

The Mandalorian’s second episode will release on November 15, just three days after the first episode. This means that viewers will have a short wait to see more of Pedro Pascal’s Mandalorian. After this, the next episode is due to release on Disney+ on November 22, a week after the second episode, and a weekly schedule will kick off from there with new episodes each Friday.

The first four episodes of The Mandalorian were all written by Jon Favreau (Iron Man, The Lion King remake), and this second episode is directed by Rick Famuyiwa (Dope). Incidentally, Famuyiwa is the first person of color to direct a live-action installment of Star Wars; the third episode, directed by Deborah Chow (American Gods, Reign) will be the first live-action Star Wars directed by a woman. Other directors across the season include Bryce Dallas Howard, Dave Filoni, and Taika Waititi.

Disney+ is loaded with Star Wars content at launch, although some users have had trouble using it at all. We’ve also got some thoughts (including episode 1 spoilers) on how an important Star Wars figure might factor into the series.

Netflix and Nickelodeon announced a huge new deal where Nickelodeon will make new TV shows and movies for the streaming network. The release didn’t contain any details on the shows, but The New York Times has details on one specific project that could be a big deal.

The outlet reported that Nickelodeon is making a “music-based” SpongeBob spinoff focused on the underwater sponge’s grumpy octopus neighbor Squidward. The report had no further details on this or any of the others projects that Nickelodeon might be working on. It is unknown of the Squidward project is a TV show or a movie.

Squidward is voiced by Rodger Bumpass on the TV show but there is no word on if he’d be back for this new program on Netflix. Squidward is an accomplished musician, known for his clarinet-playing. Squidward also led a marching band in the Season 2 episode “Band Geeks.” Check out the video above to see more of Squidward’s musical moments.

In the news release, Netflix said the deal covers original animated shows and movies based on Nickelodeon characters as well as new IP. Netflix and Nickelodeon have already worked together for shows like Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling and Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus.

SpongeBob also has a history with Netflix. Nickelodeon licensed the show to Netflix from 2009 up until 2013 when it removed the show for various reasons.

Unlike other media giants, Nickelodeon owner Viacom is not creating its own streaming service. The company instead is positioning itself as a “Hollywood arms dealer,” according to NYT, with its ambition being to create content and sell it to the highest bidder. Sources told NYT that Netflix is paying $200 million to Nickelodeon for the new deal.

SpongeBob premiered in 1999 and it remains on TV. Season 13 was announced in July this year and is set to premiere sometime in the future. The show was created by Stephen Hillenburg, who died in 2018. Outside of the main show, there have been two SpongeBob movies released in theatres.

Disclosure: Viacom and GameSpot parent company CBS merged earlier this year.

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17. Heavyweights (1995)

Everyone loves a good story about summer camp. Now, I never went to a summer camp, but–wait, this feels very familiar. Heavyweights is about a summer camp for overweight kids that gets purchased by a fitness guru (Ben Stiller), and the kids come together to teach him a lesson in humility. It’s very fun, and I love it. However, what’s more important is what happened to the antagonist, Tony Perkis, after the events of the film.

Here’s a theory I’ve had for years: Heavyweights is a prequel to Dodgeball, and after the events of Heavyweights, Tony Perkis (Stiller) began selling healing crystals door-to-door (that’s canon in the movie). He was a failure, obsessed with fitness, and gave up, gaining weight. He somehow found motivation, lost all his weight, and changed his name to White Goodman (also played by Stiller), opening up Globo Gym in the movie Dodgeball. Both the logos for Perkis Power and Globo Gym have a few similarities as well. -Mat Elfring

John Carmack, the video game legend known for his work on id Software games like Quake, Doom, and Wolfenstein, is leaving his job at Oculus. He announced on Facebook that, as of this week, he will transition to become a “consulting CTO” with Oculus instead of working at the company full time.

“I will still have a voice in the development work, but it will only be consuming a modest slice of my time,” Carmack said.

Going forward, Carmack will spend more of his time working on “artificial general intelligence.” He said it’s something he’s wanted to pursue for some time already, and he wants to go after it known “before I get too old.”

“I think it is possible, enormously valuable, and that I have a non-negligible chance of making a difference there, so by a Pascal’s Mugging sort of logic, I should be working on it,” Carmack said. “For the time being at least, I am going to be going about it Victorian Gentleman Scientist style, pursuing my inquiries from home, and drafting my son into the work.”

Carmack had served as full-time CTO at Oculus since 2013. Prior to that, he worked at the Texas-based game developer id Software, which is owned by Bethesda parent company ZeniMax.

Carmack’s time at Oculus wasn’t always smooth. ZeniMax sued Carmack (and others), claiming that Oculus stole virtual reality technology from ZeniMax. Oculus was ordered to pay ZeniMax $500 million in the case, though it was later knocked down to $250 million. Carmack sued ZeniMax on claims that the company did not pay him what he was due for its purchase of id. This matter has also since been resolved.

It is not clear at this stage if Oculus, which is owned by Facebook, will look for a permanent replacement for Carmack in the CTO role. Oculus is a very different company these days, as all six of the company’s founders have now left.

The latest Oculus product is Oculus Quest, a standalone virtual reality headset that doesn’t require a computer. In addition to working on the hardware itself, Oculus funds the development of VR games through its Oculus Studios division. Oculus also operated a studio that made animated VR movies, but Facebook closed the company in May 2017.

Who watches the watchmen? Mike and Meg do, of course. They’re back this week with a breakdown of the fourth episode of HBO’s Watchmen, “If You Don’t Like My Story, Write Your Own,” where we meet some new faces–some expected, some not so much–get some answers, and, of course, ask even more questions. It just wouldn’t be Watchmen without ’em.

This episode comes after the Laurie Blake-focused Episode 3 where we learned even more about the former Silk Spectre and her still-fraught relationship with her past. This week, Laurie and Angela are back on the case of Judd’s murder, much to Angela’s dismay, which brings us to the doorstep of Lady Trieu herself, the looming presence who has appeared only in name up until this point. It turns out Trieu is nothing if not eccentric, and, more importantly, working directly with Will. How or to what end, however, we don’t know. Will and Trieu have cooked up some sort of plan that hinges heavily on Angela taking the mysterious pills Will left behind for her, and they’re on their own personal countdown of 3 days. We can’t be sure what will happen in those 3 days, of course, but whatever it is, Will seems positive that Angela is going to hate him for it.

Tick, tock, tick tock.

Watchmen airs at 9PM on HBO.

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