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Upon release in September 2018, NBA 2K19 was heralded by critics and fans alike as an excellent professional basketball sim with a microtransaction problem. Despite the controversy surrounding the game’s microtransactions, NBA 2K19 is the biggest sports game success in 2K’s history.

During an earnings call today, 2K owner Take-Two said NBA 2K19 has now shipped 12 million copies; that makes it 2K’s most successful sports game in the company’s history.

Not only did the game ship a record-breaking number of copies, but NBA 2K19’s microtransactions are proving to be incredibly popular. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said NBA 2K19’s “recurrent consumer spending” revenue, which includes microtransactions, was up 140 percent during the quarter ended June 30.

Zelnick said NBA 2K19 is seeing “extraordinary growth in average games played and daily active users.”

NBA 2K19’s microtransactions come in the form of Virtual Currency (VC) that 2K sells in various allotments and corresponding price points from $2 USD to $100 USD. Players can spend the VC to upgrade their custom-created character and buy card packs to fill out their fantasy team.

GameSpot’s review stated that “microtransactions loom over everything” in NBA 2K19. Numerous other reviews from critics and fans alike expressed some level of dissatisfaction with the way in which NBA 2K19 employs its microtransaction system.

Beyond microtransactions, 2K added seemingly unskippable pre-game ads to NBA 2K19 in another move that rubbed some fans the wrong way.

Despite all of the controversy surrounding NBA 2K19, the franchise is praised every year for its impressively faithful representation of the NBA experience with excellent controls and presentation and numerous modes to play.

In the earnings call, Take-Two boss Karl Slatoff said people enjoy the NBA 2K series because it is an “industry-leading” simulation game; players also enjoy the “lifestyle” elements of creating a character and progressing through the career mode, he said.

Zelnick, meanwhile, spoke about the evolution of how players connect with and experience 2K’s NBA games over the years. People are spending more time with NBA 2K games these days, and that in turn creates an opportunity for 2K to encourage players to spend more over time.

“I think six or seven years ago, basketball was a three-month experience. And now it’s a nine- or 10-month experience and we think it’s going to grow to be a full, one-year experience,” he said.

Slatoff added that the 2K League, which is an eSports organization dedicated to the NBA 2K series, has helped promote the NBA 2K video games and draw in new players. Additionally, the game’s mixture of modes and features has gone a long way to attracting and retaining players, he said.

“If they’re more engaged with the game, they’re going to spend more money ultimately,” Slatoff said. “There’s a lot of dry powder there. We’re still in the early beginnings of learning how to do this the best way.”

NBA 2K19’s recurrent consumer spending growth rate of 140% is far ahead of Take-Two’s overall growth rate for recurrent consumer spending. Total recurrent consumer spending revenue–comprising virtual currency, add-on content, and in-game purchases–jumped 31% during the latest quarter and made up 58% ($313.5 million) of Take-Two’s total GAAP net revenue for the period ($540.5 million).

NBA 2K19 was the single-largest contributor to Take-Two’s GAAP net revenue during the quarter; it performed even better than GTA Online and Red Dead Online, according to the company.

Take-Two also measures what it calls “net bookings,” which is the “net amount of products and services sold digitally or sold-in physically during the period, and includes licensing fees, merchandise, in-game advertising, strategy guides and publisher incentives.”

Net bookings from recurrent consumer spending for the three-month period ended June 30 jumped by 55% and made up 67% ($282.9 million) of Take-Two’s overall net bookings ($422.2 million. GTA Online was the biggest contributor to net bookings for the quarter, followed by the GTA V base game, and then NBA 2K19. In terms of digitally delivered net bookings, however, NBA 2K19 was No. 1

NBA 2K19 series producer Rob Jones told TrustedReviews that microtransactions are an “unfortunate reality of modern gaming.”

“Every game, at some point, in some way has currency and they’re trying to get additional revenue from each player that plays the game. You know, the question has to be when does it feel like it’s a straight money grab versus when does it feel like it’s value added, right?”

NBA 2K20 launches on September 20, and given how immensely popular microtransactions have been in NBA 2K19, you can expect them to return in some capacity in the new game. Overall, Take-Two has said it wants to put microtransaction opportunities in every game it makes.

It’s not just the NBA 2K series that is criticized for its use of microtransactions. EA’s stable of sports games, including Madden NFL, FIFA, and NHL, all feature controversial “Ultimate Team” modes that allow players to spend real money to build out fantasy teams. As with the NBA 2K series, Ultimate Team is big business for EA, which makes hundreds of millions annually from it.

Streaming services have taken over the world. Sure, plenty of people around the world still have cable or satellite subscriptions, but when it comes to viewer anticipation, people are talking about what’s headed to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, or Shudder a whole lot more than what’s coming to network television. And this week, Netflix has plenty of great content headed your way.

Returning for Season 3 on Friday is the dramatic-comedy series about women wrestlers, GLOW. While the latest season was enjoyable, it did depart from previous seasons. “The latest offering of Netflix’s comedic drama feels less fun than previous seasons,” I said in my review of GLOW Season 3. “Tonally, it’s much more serious, dealing with these character’s life-altering problems rather than the goofiness of trying to figure out what professional wrestling is or putting on an entertaining show. The show steps away from actual wrestling, even when wrestling is a daily event for these women, which is a strange choice.”

If you’re looking for something from your childhood, revived for the modern age, then you’re probably pretty excited for Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling, which is also arriving on Friday. For this Netflix special, Rocko and his friends have been trapped in space for 20 years and return to O-Town, where technology has vastly improved. From there, Rocko tries to get his favorite show, The Fatheads, back on the air. The trailer for the upcoming special is hilarious.

Below, you’ll find the full list for everything coming to Netflix this week.

New to Netflix This Week:

Sunday, August 4

• Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj: Volume 4 — NETFLIX ORIGINAL

Monday, August 5

• Enter the Anime — NETFLIX ORIGINAL
• No Good Nick: Part 2 — NETFLIX FAMILY

Tuesday, August 6

• Screwball
• Sebastian Maniscalco: Why Would You Do That

Thursday, August 8

• Dollar — NETFLIX ORIGINAL
• Jane The Virgin: Season 5
• Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer
• The Naked Director — NETFLIX ORIGINAL
• Wu Assassins — NETFLIX ORIGINAL

Friday, August 9

• Cable Girls: Season 4 — NETFLIX ORIGINAL
• The Family — NETFLIX ORIGINAL
• GLOW: Season 3 — NETFLIX ORIGINAL
• The InBESTigators — NETFLIX FAMILY
• iZombie: Season 5
• Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling — NETFLIX FAMILY
• Sintonia — NETFLIX ORIGINAL
• Spirit Riding Free: Pony Tales — NETFLIX FAMILY
• Tiny House Nation: Volume 1

Arc System Works blessed the fighting game community with a brief look at a brand new Guilty Gear game. During EVO 2019, which took place from August 2-4 in Las Vegas, the Japanese developer unveiled Guilty Gear 2020 with a teaser trailer, expected to launch sometime next year for unspecified platforms.

The trailer, below, shows some gorgeous visuals as the fight between series mainstays–Ky Kiske and Sol Badguy–transitions between 2.5D and 3D, and back again. It seems Arc Systems Works is experimenting with new camera systems to make battles more cinematic. Just before the trailer wraps up, we get a glimpse of what seems to be a new character: an African American male with dreadlocks and two katanas. He looks like a cross between Afro Samurai and legendary two-sword samurai Musashi Miyamoto.

No other information about the new fighting game is available. However, Arc System Works’ Team Red division is developing the project, with Daisuke Ishiwatari (Sol Badguy’s in-game voice actor) leading the charge. The last entry in the long-running fighting game franchise, Guilty Gear Xrd: Rev 2, launched in May 2017.

Guilty Gear 2020 wasn’t the only announcement during the Evolution Championship Series. SNK pulled back the curtain on The King of Fighters XV, which is now in development. SoulCalibur VI will see Cassandra join its roster, with Samurai Shodown‘s Haohmaru sharpening his sword for Season 2. Though leaked, Street Fighter V will soon get a bevy of DLC characters added to its roster. And one of Arc System Works other fighter games, Dragon Ball FighterZ, has a new character entering the fray soon in the form of Janemba.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has smashed a record, knocking out a new peak viewership number for concurrent viewers at this weekend’s Evo 2019 tournament. The latest Smash game closed out Evo as the main event this year for the first time, though Smash Bros. Melee has been a longtime favorite at the annual fighting game tournament.

Twitter user Rod Breslau noted the record with a screenshot, pointing out it had hit 279,000 concurrent viewers. That topples the previous record holder, Dragon Ball FighterZ, set in 2018 with more than 257,000 concurrent viewers, via Twin Galaxies. At the time that was also the all-time high, so some of this boost for Smash Bros. could show an increasing popularity for the Evo tournament.

Smash Bros. has been a regular staple in some form since 2007, when Melee was added to the lineup. Since then Melee has remained a near-constant presence at Evo, while others like Brawl and Smash 4 have come and gone. This year Ultimate was the only Smash Bros. representation on the main schedule, as Melee was given its own side-tournament.

Most recently, Smash Bros. Ultimate issued the 4.0 update, which introduced a ton of fighter changes and the new Dragon Quest Hero character. That character, along with Joker from the Persona series and the upcoming Banjo-Kazooie character from their titular series, can be obtained individually as DLC or as a bundle with the Fighter Pass.

If I had to think of a single item from my childhood that carries the highest concentration of imbued nostalgia, it’d be a Pokemon card. Doesn’t matter which one. You could hand me a beaten-up Base Set Diglett and I’d be overwhelmed with Pocket Monster memories. I can remember my first booster pack, my best holographics, and those trades I always regretted. The reason those things stick with me all comes down to one thing: the art. For over 20 years, the Pokemon Trading Card Game (TCG) has delivered thousands of bespoke Pokemon designs that are exclusive to the format. It’s like collecting miniature works of art that you curate in ring-bound galleries, mounted in plastic pocket pages rather than on walls.

I have been fascinated with Pokemon cards ever since they debuted on my school playground in 1999. So when I heard legendary artist Mitsuhiro Arita was in town, I jumped at the chance to sit down with him and talk about his inspiration, method, and most importantly, what he thinks of “chubby” Pikachu.

Mitsuhiro Arita, long-time artist for the Pokemon Trading Card Game

With over 600 Pokemon cards in his portfolio, it’s extremely likely you’ve seen Arita’s work. It spans the entirety of the TCG, from the original holographic Charizard to the recent Tag Team cards, where powerful Pokemon team up and drop massive amounts of damage on your opponent. With the next generation of Pokemon on the horizon as part of Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield, I had to ask how he approaches the brand-new creatures.

When a new Pokemon is announced, the first artwork we see is usually by series veteran Ken Sugimori. But it turns out there isn’t much collaboration at all between Pokemon artists, as it’s mostly freelancers working on the card series. After an initial brief from Creatures, Inc, the company that produces the Pokemon Trading Card Game, they’re left to come up with their own impression of a monster. Arita did say that he would love to collaborate with Sugimori, or many of the other Pokemon artists, which is something I’d personally love to see.

So what does inspire Arita when it comes to bringing Pikachu or Mewtwo to life on a blank canvas? “It’s actually a lot better to look at real life,” Arita said. “When you see an illustration it will inevitably reflect that artist’s world view, from a creative way of thinking, so it’s perhaps not so good for stimulating your own kind of different, new, free thoughts.” Arita explained that he watches a lot of BBC nature documentaries and films for inspiration, which surely helps the Pokemon he draws feel more like living, breathing creatures. Anyone who follows Arita on Twitter will know that he has spent a lot of his recent time in Europe at museums, sketching ancient artifacts and sculptures, soaking in dozens of different cultures.

Speaking of Europe, the Galar region of Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield is loosely based on the United Kingdom, so I asked Arita if his trip would have any influence on future cards he works on. “The knowledge of the environment and architecture of European countries is an inspiration, especially the sense of the scale of the architecture.” While Arita couldn’t go into any detail on upcoming Pokemon cards we might see alongside the release of Sword and Shield, it’s clear that his travels in Europe will have some kind of influence on his art for the Pokemon TCG.

Arita has been heavily involved in the recent Tag Team sets, with Team Up, Unbroken Bonds, and the new Unified Minds expansion, where the strongest Pokemon share a card and combine their powers. Zekrom and Pikachu, Reshiram and Charizard, or as we see in the new set, Mewtwo and Mew, are just a few of the dream teams. But the artist doesn’t get a say in which Pokemon are paired up.

“The top priority really is from the game designers at Creatures, and they think about how those Pokemon work in the actual gameplay,” Arita explained. Arita went on to add that The Pokemon Company might also have some influence on which Pokemon are chosen, depending on current popularity. This might explain the team-up of Slowpoke and Psyduck, which is now, in my opinion, the greatest Pokemon card ever created, regardless of how playable it actually is. Either way, whatever request comes Arita’s way, he says he’s happy to think about how to bring out each monster’s best side.

Left: Mewtwo-GX from Shining Legends. Right: Mewtwo & Mew-GX from Tag Team

The flagship team-up for Unified Minds is the legendary Mewtwo and Mew, who capped off the original 151 Pokemon, and I happen to know that Mewtwo is Arita’s favorite Pokemon. “There’s a story behind this card,” he said. Those with a keen eye may have already noticed, but the art for this new card is a callback to one of Arita’s previous works in the Shining Legends set, Mewtwo-GX, which he was particularly proud of. It’s a stunning piece of art showing Mewtwo held captive in a laboratory–a must-have for collectors. Arita then pointed out that some of the background details match those in the Mewtwo & Mew-GX from the latest set, so fans can deduce that Mew has come to the rescue and broken Mewtwo out of captivity. This wasn’t requested by Creatures; instead, it’s an extra level Arita has added to this card to bring it to life.

This isn’t the only example of themes and stories hidden within Arita’s art. Over 15 years ago he worked on an Umbreon card for the Aquapolis set. In this art, Umbreon is sat atop a roof across from a distinctive clocktower, and this very same clocktower features in the art for the new Umbreon & Darkrai-GX card. “You get kind of sucked into the story, and fans develop their own theories. It’s more a kind of participative way of designing these new card illustrations.”

Left: Umbreon’s clocktower. Right: the new Pokemon Melmetal

The hardest part of creating art for a Tag Team card is actually trying to fit everything in since those cards contain a lot of text. Arita talked me through an example with Lucario & Melmetal-GX, a card featuring both a very popular Pokemon and a very new one. “Everyone knows Lucario, they know what Lucario looks like. So you don’t have to show the whole of Lucario for people to get the idea. With Melmetal, even though he is so huge and really difficult to actually fit onto the card, I thought I really should show as much as possible of this new Pokemon or everyone will just be like, ‘What is this?'” Arita went on to explain how he had to work hard to make this particular combination work and ended up putting a lot of emphasis on Melmetal’s head, which, after all, is just a nut with a ball for an eye hovering inside. “I tried to make it so that even if you look at it from a distance you could see that, and it stood out to make it even more easy to understand what that was.”

Pokemon aren’t really dark, negative, or depressing. They’re happy, they’re joyful.

Fascinated by Arita’s latest work, I couldn’t end without asking about one of his first cards– card 58 from the first set of the Pokemon Trading Card Game, Pikachu. It’s now lovingly known as “chubby” or “fat” Pikachu, since the more recent versions of the electric rodent are a lot slimmer. But which does Arita prefer now?

“I prefer rounder Pikachu,” he promptly told me, before explaining how it’s difficult to attain the perfect roundness of Pikachu when drawing digitally, and it’s much easier to go back to traditional methods to achieve that “soft feeling.” Looking at Arita’s Pikachu art over the years, I couldn’t help but feel that he had managed to capture the same playful and happy side of Pikachu each time. I asked him if this was his own personal version of Pikachu. “Not really just limited to Pikachu, but in general I feel like Pokemon aren’t really dark, negative, or depressing. They’re happy, they’re joyful. So I think that feeling has just kind of come out and expressed itself in these cards.”

Just a few of Arita’s Pikachu cards

The latest expansion for the Pokemon Trading Card Game, Sun & Moon: Unified Minds, is available now, with Arita’s art featuring on booster packs and many of the new Tag Team Pokemon-GX cards. Speaking to Arita was an absolute pleasure, and I now have a new level of appreciation for the craft of designing a Pokemon card. Next time you crack open a booster pack, take a little more time to look at each card and see if you can spot the influences and hidden stories lovingly illustrated on those 2.5″ by 3.5″ works of art.

The survival game Vigor will be free-to-play on Xbox One the weekend of August 8, Bohemia Interactive has announced. The free weekend will let you sample the Xbox timed exclusive game, currently in early access (or “Game Preview,” as Xbox calls it) to put it through its paces.

The free period will last through August 11, and comes right alongside the recent 0.9 Update. That update, nicknamed “Aid,” made big changes to the shooting mechanics and introduced new features like weapon skins, daily challenges, customization, spectator mode, gestures, and more.

So far more than half a million players have tried Vigor, and Bohemia says this free weekend is aimed at expanding the player base and testing new features ahead of its free-to-play release coming later this summer. If you enjoy the free time and want to keep playing, you can purchase a Founder’s Pack for $20 / 20 Euro and get some extra loot.

Vigor is a survival game set in Norway, from the studio behind DayZ. Bohemia previously explained that Sony’s lack of an early access program led it to launch Vigor exclusively for Xbox, at least at first. It will come to PS4 sometime later. A PC release has not been announced.

With crunch becoming an increasingly hot-button topic in the games industry, many developers are speaking out against the ruthless work environments employees at high-profile studios like Epic Games and Rockstar routinely face. The Outer Worlds developer Obsidian Entertainment is one such studio, saying it is “very committed” to keeping its work environment crunch-free.

In an interview with PCGamesN, The Outer Worlds’ senior designer, Brian Hines, said crunch is not in the studio’s development formula. “Obsidian is not a crunch studio, which is one of the things that keeps people staying there for a long time,” Hines said. Though he admitted employees are sometimes asked to stay longer in order “to meet a deadline,” Hines assured that these extra hours were “always [just] a request” and last for only “a week or so.”

Hines also confirmed the individual developers always have the right to exercise their autonomy, declining the request if they so choose. “There really hasn’t been a crunch or a death march or anything like that with the studio for quite a long time, as far as I can remember anyway,” Hines said. “That’s definitely one of the things that as a studio we’re very committed to. [W]e’d rather cut something than try and get people to not have a life outside of the industry.”

The Outer Worlds is set to launch on October 25 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The upcoming first-person RPG is also coming to Nintendo Switch, though no release date has been confirmed as of yet. It might not be “politically charged,” but The Outer Worlds is shaping up to be a modern homage to Fallout: New Vegas.

Let’s face it: Space is scary. Between the endless, uncaring void, the potential for chest-bursting aliens, and the omnipresent threat of catastrophic tech failure and accident, the cosmos itself is already horrific enough just on its own. But, if you needed yet another reason to be made extremely uncomfortable by the prospect of the abyss–don’t worry. Variety has reported that Paramount and Amazon are teaming up to develop a TV adaptation of the 1997 sci-fi horror classic, Event Horizon.

Though no details are currently available, it has been reported that Adam Wingard (Godzilla vs. Kong, Blair Witch, You’re Next) will be leading the charge. Whether or not the show will be a reboot of the movie, a continuation of the story set within the same universe, or something else entirely remains a mystery.

Originally directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, the man responsible for bringing us the first live-action Mortal Kombat movie, Event Horizon featured Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburn on an ill-fated space mission that, eventually, culminated in them piercing the cosmic barriers between our reality and a horrifying hell-dimension, all while trying to run a rescue mission on a derelict space ship. That’s right: Neill and Fishburn were sent to Space Hell, and it went about as well (and as brutally) as you could imagine.

One part Alien, one part Danny Boyle’s Sunshine, ten parts Hellraiser, Event Horizon blurred the lines between the metaphysical realms of spirituality, ghosts, and demons with the hard facts of scientific theory and space-age engineering with all the charm and practical effects of its late-’90s era.

Don’t worry, we may not have a ton of information on this one just yet, but there is still plenty of horror to look forward to this year. And some of it is already streaming.

Almost every day, streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, or Shudder deliver brand-new content to subscribers. This week, the three latter companies have something coming out during every day of the week. Here’s what you can watch on Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and AMC’s horror service Shudder.

Amazon Prime Video doesn’t have a lot coming out this week. The majority of the content from that service arrives in the second half of the month. However, the streaming service is premiering a new documentary series you may want to check out. On Friday, Season 1 of Free Meek will be released. The docuseries follows the 2017 arrest of rapper Meek Mill for a probation violation. Additionally, the series delves into justice reform and police corruption.

The biggest release on Hulu this week is Season 3A of Attack on Titan. The anime series follows humans trying to survive in a walled-off city while expressionless, gigantic humanoids try to force their way in and eat everyone. Don’t get attached to any of the characters though because everyone tends to meet their demise at some point. The new season arrives on Tuesday.

And if you’ve been following streaming news the past couple of weeks, then you know I cannot shut up about Slumber Party Massacre II, coming to Shudder on Monday. A wonderful, cheesy, insane ’80s-slasher film, SPM2 follows a group of young women who go to a condo over the weekend to have practice with their rockin’ band, but they all end up getting stalked by a rockabilly murderer with a giant drillbit on his guitar. This movie is a masterpiece. You’re welcome for the suggestion.

Below, you’ll find everything coming to the aforementioned streaming services. Make sure to check out what’s coming to Netflix this week as well.

New To Amazon, Hulu, And Shudder this week:

Monday, August 5

Hulu

• The Kleptocrats (2018)

Shudder

• The Slumber Party Massacre (1982, Amy Holden Jones)
• Slumber Party Massacre II (1987, Deborah Brock)

Tuesday, August 6

Hulu

• Apollo: Mission to the Moon: Special (National Geographic)
• Attack on Titan: Complete Season 3A (Funimation)
• Bachelor in Paradise: Season 6 premiere (ABC)
• Plus One (2018)
• Swan Princess: Kingdom of Music (2017)
• The Swan Princess: Kingdom of Music (2019)

Wednesday, August 7

Amazon Prime Video

• All I See Is You (2016)

Hulu

• The Armstrong Tapes: Special (National Geographic)

Thursday, August 8

Hulu

• Apollo: Back to the Moon: Special (National Geographic)
• BH90210: Series Premiere (FOX)
• Mortdecai (2015)

Shudder

• NOS4A2 (2019) — New episodes on Thursdays through October 10

Friday, August 9

Amazon Prime Video

• Free Meek S1 – Amazon Prime Original
• Pete the Cat S1 Part 2 – Amazon Prime Original

Hulu

• The Beach Bum (2019)

WayForward has released a new trailer for River City Girls, an upcoming beat-’em-up. The trailer highlights the personality of Misako, one of the two playable characters in the game. You can watch the new trailer below.

In the trailer description, Misako is described by WayForward as “hot-blooded,” just like her best friend Kyoko. She’s also “tough, impulsive, and always ready for a fight.” Misako seems to have a bit of an angry streak to her as well, having no patience for her classmates who get in her way and aggressively punching her boyfriend Kunio after he steals the last piece of food that she and Kyoko were fighting over. In the trailer, we also get to see a bit more of River City Girls’ gameplay, which features traditional beat-’em-up mechanics like throwables, combos, and special attacks.

River City Girls is one of the better anime-like games we played at Anime Expo 2019. Developed by Shantae: Half-Genie Hero‘s WayForward and overseen by Dragon Ball FighterZ‘s Arc System Works, River City Girls is the newest entry in the River City franchise. The game begins with franchise main characters Kunio and Riki being kidnapped. Their girlfriends, Kyoko and Misako, embark on a rampage across the different districts of the city to find and save them.

To convey the same sense of style as the original River City games, River City Girls features 16-bit-style graphics, an ’80s-inspired synthpop soundtrack, and both solo and co-op play. River City Girls is scheduled to release for Xbox One, PS4, Switch, and PC on September 5. Limited Run Games is also creating a physical version.